The City of Portage la Prairie is moving ahead with two major capital projects, if funding approval is granted through the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund (CWWF).

At its meeting Monday night, Council voted to proceed with upgrades at the Water Treatment Plant (WTP) and utility renewal on Saskatchewan Ave. Both projects are subject to funding approval, and would see the City on the hook for 25 per cent of costs, or about $2.4-million for the WTP, and $875,000 for water and sewer pipe work on Saskatchewan Ave.

Water Works Committee chair Wayne Wall says the TWP upgrades have to do with removing chlorinated organics from the system, which could create carcinogens in the water. He says it's tested regularly and isn't a problem here, but it could be.

"We want to do everything we can to make sure we meet all standards, all the time," Wall says. "That's why we want to go ahead with these upgrades, as well as other upgrades that were found during the five-year engineering study we were required to do on water systems."

The utility renewal project on Saskatchewan Ave. was originally earmarked for 2022, but Wall says it was fast-tracked because of available grant money now.

"We're trying to take advantage of that," Wall says. "We will have to do some shuffing in our debt management plan to see where the money will come from for our share."

The water and sewer pipe replacement on Saskatchewan Ave. will require digging from 8th St. NW to Shindleman Way. The CWWF funding requires the projects be completed by March 31, 2018. City operations says it's an aggresive target to meet for the Sasktachewan Ave. work, but can be done pending timely funding approval.

"That's our message to the government: we want to go ahead with these things," Coun. Wall says. "If we're going to finish them by March 2018, we need to know in the next couple of weeks whether or not we have the money."