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New Tecumseth and Collingwood announce plan for water treatment plant expansion

April 25, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

A joint statement from New Tecumseth Mayor Richard Norcross and Collingwood Mayor Yvonne Hamlin announced an agreement to award the contract for the water treatment plant expansion.

On April 10, New Tecumseth Council announced its intent to proceed with its planned share of the Raymond A. Barker Water Treatment Plant Expansion project. Both New Tecumseth and Collingwood Town Councils agreed on mutually beneficial terms to share and seek to augment water capacity during construction.

After an in-camera council meeting, on April 15, Collingwood Council passed a motion on accepting a tender from Kenaiden Contracting Ltd for the water treatment plant.

The agreement was released stating: “that Council of the Town of New Tecumseth (NT) hereby indicate its agreement to the Town of Collingwood (TOC) to proceed forward with its 63% cost share of the expansion of the Raymond A. Barker Water Treatment Plant with the understanding that 250 [cubic metres] will be made available to the Town of New Tecumseth for immediate allocation with a further supply of 150 [cubic metres] of Collingwood’s remaining capacity within the next 12 calendar months – with both quantities being made available subject only to the technical capabilities of the Plant; and Further That the Town of New Tecumseth and Town of Collingwood will participate in the discussion and allocation of an interim water solution after the review is completed by AECOM in October 2024 subject to proportional cost sharing and a minimum of 50% directed to the Town of New Tecumseth; and further that should the Town of New Tecumseth need an interim water solution, the Town of Collingwood commits to moving forward with this project; with Collingwood paying its proportionate share to which it agrees; and further, that upon the commissioning of the anticipated NT wells optimization project, should excess cubes from the original New Tecumseth plan [3,137 cubic metres] be found, there will be a return to Collingwood of 200 [cubic metres/day], unless Collingwood has access to 200 cubic [metres/day] or more of interim capacity over the current 31,140 [cubic metres/day]; Further that The Town of New Tecumseth and Town of Collingwood continue to actively pursue an expectation of Provincial or other level of government funding through infrastructure programs to assist with this partnership of capital investment.” 

The total project cost is in the range of $270 million, which is about $150 million higher than anticipated. Both Councils expect that the provincial and federal governments will help through the significant infrastructure funding programs that they have announced. Without this plant expansion, the town will not be able to build new homes to meet provincial housing targets or support job creation with commercial and industrial growth.

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