Province pins $60-M outlet project increase on added features

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This article was published 09/05/2022 (961 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Progressive Conservative government denies the rising cost of a massive flood-mitigation project is due to delays or that it’s to blame.

The cost of the Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin channel outlet is increasing to an estimated $600 million, from the previously projected $540 million.

On Tuesday, Premier Heather Stefanson was pressed by the Opposition in question period to explain the reason for the cost increase, if the province is at fault and who is on the hook for it.

“In the middle of some of the worst flooding in years, the biggest infrastructure project in Manitoba is going nowhere fast and the bills are piling up,” NDP Leader Wab Kinew told the house.

“We know that (former Tory premier) Brian Pallister was supposed to build the Lake Manitoba-Lake St. Martin channel and it didn’t get done. He failed. We’re now learning the PC delays on this project have cost $60 million in cost overruns. It went from $540 million under Brian Pallister to $600 million under this premier — we need to know who will pay for the PC delay?”

Stefanson said her government is working collaboratively with the federal government to ensure the outlet is built.

The project is aimed at preventing a repeat of extensive flooding that forced thousands from their homes in First Nations communities in 2011.

The cost-shared project was originally pegged at $540 million, with $297.5 million coming from the province and $247.5 million from Ottawa.

The $540-million price tag was the estimated cost in 2017, when the initial design was created, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk said Tuesday. Since then, the province consulted with communities and incorporated more environmental features, such as fish ladders, he said in a scrum with reporters after question period.

“When we came to the final design, when we consulted with all the different communities in the area, First Nations communities and also the RMs, we also made sure that we added any components that they would want to see,” said Piwniuk. “That’s the final design, and that’s where the $600 million was arrived at.”

The additional $60 million cost is due to additional features being included, he said.

“It isn’t because of delays.”

Kinew dismissed the government’s explanation.

“Everyone in Manitoba has known since the early stages of this project that consultation and engagement with local communities would be required for this project to move forward expeditiously,” said Kinew. “Why did they not engage in this consultation in the first place, and why is the $60 million only now being disclosed at this point?”

Piwniuk said he, the premier and Central Services Minister Reg Helwer have been working with federal counterparts on cost-sharing the additional $60 million and getting work on the flood-mitigation project started.

“Right now, we have to get the final licence to allow the construction,” Piwniuk said.

Manitoba governments have a history of not consulting with Indigenous communities from the get-go when it comes to major infrastructure projects, Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said.

In this case, the province had to go back to the drawing board to consult and that’s resulted in an extra $60 million in costs at a time when inflation is at a 30-year high. The PC government has been notorious for delaying other federal-provincial infrastructure projects, Lamont said.

“Part of it is they were so focused on balancing their own budget they were willing to push projects to later, even if it ended up costing them more,” he said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca