Manitoba's Infrastructure minister, Blaine Pedersen, hand-delivered a cheque Friday for Carman's water reservoir project.

Pedersen says the planned water reservoir is much needed for Carman

The current water tower, used for storage, is in need of extensive repairs and is essentially coming to the end of its life. The new reservoir will hold approximately 800,000 gallons of water, and could potentially connect to the Pembina Valley Water Co-op system if needed. The estimated total cost of the project is about $6 million dollars.
    
Pedersen said Carman is receiving $3.5 million in provincial funding for the project, 10 per cent of what the Manitoba government is doling out for water and wastewater projects as part of a new five-year Manitoba Water Services Board capital funding plan.

"Across the province we've got $33.6 million being distributed to municipalities across the province, so this is a significant amount for the Town of Carman. (It is) much needed and will help the community a lot."

He explained all of the projects are selected by the Manitoba Water Services Board.

"They do the due diligence on it, and obviously they saw the importance of this."

Meantime Pedersen, who is the MLA for Midland, said it's also great to be able to bring some infrastructure money back to his home constituency. Three projects in Midland will see a total of $1.8 million dollars in provincial funding thanks to the cost-shared New Building Canada Small Communities Fund. The federal government and municipalities will be matching the province's contribution to the projects as well.

The three levels of government will split the $825,000 bill for the Sheffield Tri-Municipal Bridge spearheaded by the R.M. of Louise, the $2.19 million price of water and sewer main renewal in Treherne and the $1.9 million lagoon upgrade in La Riviere.

"These are three very significant projects across Midland constituency, much needed," added Pedersen.

He said these announcements are exactly what the provincial Provincial Conservatives have been working for all these years, seeing rural Manitoba get its share of infrastructure funding.