An announcement this summer which was touted as the solution to Okotoks and Foothills County's water woes is now being presented in a different light.
In July, then Minister of Transporation Prasad Panda paid a visit to Okotoks to announce the awarding of a $15.9-million Water for Life Grant to the two municipalities for completion of a regional water pipeline.
Now, Reeve Delilah Miller is saying the County was cut out of that plan, when the Province awarded the full $15.9 million to Okotoks, leaving no grant money for Foothills to contribute.
"When the minister announced the Water for Life Grant funding, they didn’t let us know at the time – they paraded us all out in public – what the break down was going to be, essentially," she said.
"So when we got the letter a couple of weeks later, the letter came in saying Okotoks was going to get the full $16 million in funding and Foothills was getting nothing."
Miller explained the County then reached out to the Province to air its grievances.
"Without us, this project doesn’t go forward and you needed two municipalities to apply on the Water for Life funding and we are very much a joint partner with Okotoks on this," she said of the County's correspondence. "We are expecting some funding as well and it wasn’t fair that you stood us out there and made everybody believe we were going to get funding."
Darren Davidson from Alberta Transportation paid a visit to County council last week following discussion of the topic at a Rural Municipalities of Alberta forum earlier this month.
Though he didn't provide extensive details, Davidson said to expect correspondence from the minister relatively soon.
The Foothills Okotoks Regional Water Project comes at a total cost of $35.4 million and will see the construction of a raw water pipeline to carry water from the Bow River to water treatment facilities in Okotoks and Foothills County. A supplemental water solution has been a topic of conversation in the area for decades.
The pipeline is expected to be up and running by August 2025.
