St. Paul moves forward with wastewater upgrade funding

In January, St. Paul received word from Honourable Brian Mason, the Transportation & Infrastructure Minister for Alberta, that the Town will be the recipient of a $5.5 million grant for its Wastewater Upgrade project. The grant, which comes through the Federal Clean Water and Wastewater Fund, covers half of the total cost of the upgrade, meaning that the town of St. Paul is responsible for covering the other $5.5 million dollar cost.

The Wastewater Upgrade, which would be completed in approximately two years’ time, will cost $1.2 million in 2018 and $9.8M 2019.

Council is investigating the possibility of receiving additional funds through the Alberta Water and Wastewater Program, but that is not a concrete option. In the event that no extra funding is received through the Wastewater Program, St. Paul Council will consider borrowing the $5.5 million through Alberta Capital Finance. Should this be the case, the following repayment options would be available to the Town (based on rates calculated at the start of February 2018):

10 years at 2.937% resulting in semi-annual payments of $319,357.67
15 years at 3.3134% resulting in semi-annual payments of $213,196.56
20 years at 3.233% resulting in semi-annual payments of $187,782.18

The Town also has a $2 million line of credit available through Servus Credit Union. Rather than making an immediate decision regarding lending, Council moved to use this line of credit, which will operate at the prime rate less .5, to cover the $1.2 million costs of year one of the upgrade project and to reassess borrowing options at the close of 2018. They hope that additional funding options will become available before over the next year to help alleviate the remaining $5.5 million for which the Town is responsible.