Infrastructure Planning for Growth

There is no doubt we have been growing: more commercial and industrial business as demonstrated by new hotels and Iron Horse. We are also expecting approximately 250 new residential units over the next year or two in Brookhollow Estates. These are all good things but we can't sit still about the growth. Currently our infrastructure can handle our loads but we don't want our infrastructure to lag behind our growth.

As part of looking ahead on November 14th we hosted a meeting with:

• AECom,
• Associated Engineering,
• Ministry of Environment,
• Sask Planning Commission, and
• Sask Water Security Agency.

The purpose of the meeting was to involve all relevant parties related to expertise and regulatory obligations to ensure Kindersley experiences healthy growth. Other communities are growing and experiencing growth pains, some small and large pains, while other communities' growth has been stopped because of lack of infrastructure capacity. Some communities look at infrastructure in a 'silo' fashion: only residential, only commercial, and only industrial. We are examining them as a whole in relation to one another. It was said by a provincial representative that we are doing things correctly.

To plan prudently we are engaging, pending Council approval, AECom and Associated Engineering to assess our infrastructure capacity. We want to be aware of the questions we need to be asking ourselves and to plan for the appropriate infrastructure at the right time at the right cost; costing includes being eligible for funding and applying for the relevant funding such as the Build Canada Fund. We are assuming a population of about 9,000 people in ten years.

One more thing before I get into the details: some engineers prefer to measure capacity by population while others prefer to examine volume of demand. It is our opinion that given the nature of our commercial and industrial businesses that the best methodology is volume of demand.

Below is a list of infrastructure we are assessing:

• Water Treatment Plant including:
• treatment process capacity,
• distribution pumping capacity,
• waste water generation,
• potable water storage capacity,
• water demand, and
• raw water supply.
• Water Distribution Network.
• Sanitary Sewage System Assessment (the sewage lagoon):
• effluent treatment effectiveness,
• storage capacity,
• lagoon cell transfer pump capacity and condition,
• condition assessment,
• sewage pumping station,
• sewage forcemain capacities,
• sewage loading and effluent generation.
• Sanitary Collection Network:
• what is our pinch point?
• Lift Station Assessments:
• conformance of existing equipment with current standards,
• current capacity and ability to accommodate current peak flows.
• Storm Sewer Assessment:
• evaluate the existing piped network for capacity.
• Infrastructure Asset Capital Planning:
• inventory of each system with capacity,
• an Asset Capital Plan showing the required upgrades to meet growth in sequential order with total costs for per project so capital can be allocated.

The report will provide Council and Administration with a document to plan infrastructure growth in conjunction with anticipated commercial, industrial, and residential growth while budgeting capital to ensure healthy growth. Also provided in the report will be recommendations to address gaps in water, sewer, and storm sewer systems to meet the needs of the future in relation to our Official Community Plan and Strategic Plan.