The town of Altona got some good news this week. It will finally get to address its downtown drainage problem and it won't cost them a cent to fix.

Premier Brian Pallister announced on Wednesday the Manitoba government is investing $33 million in damage prevention and climate resiliency projects to support municipalities across the province. Of that money, $17 million dollars has been earmarked for six rural municipal projects including Altona's proposed downtown drainage issue which has a $2.4 million dollar price tag.

Altona had originally applied to the Federal-Provincial infrastructure program to help cost-share the project, but now the province has promised to foot the whole bill.

"That's huge for us," said Mayor Al Friesen, who was elated by the news. "Our share of the project would have been $600,000. We didn't have that money in our back pocket and would have had to borrow the money, but because the potential for this project was so high we felt it was still worth the investment. So, this is really positive news...and we're greatly appreciative to the premier and the provincial government."

Altona's downtown core area has been flooded numerous times over the past decade or more during heavy rain events, which has forced the closure of some streets. The town hired an engineering firm to conduct a study of the issue and come up with some recommendations on how to address the situation. The best option to fix the problem, according to the study, would cost a few million dollars.

"Long term Altona residents are very familiar with the problem downtown when there is a significant rainfall...and I think for the growth of the community this is a real positive step forward," said Friesen. "For those downtown residents and business owners, they will all breathe easier as they see the work getting underway, so we're waiting for details but we're enthused and excited."

Some of the other municipal projects that the province will fund in full include the St. Mary's Road improvement project in the RM of Montcalm and an expansion of the GNS east pump house in the RM of Rhineland.

The province will invest the remaining $16 million to convert Provincial Road (PR) 246 from gravel to asphalt from PTH 23 near Morris to PR 205 near Aubigny, which will allow traffic to be rerouted around sections of PTH 75 that are most prone to closure.

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