Annapolis Valley village and county get millions in water, wastewater funds

The provincial and federal governments announced millions of dollars for water and wastewater projects in Kings County and Village of Canning on Thursday.

"We were at the situation where it was absolutely necessary that these projects proceed," said Mayor Peter Muttart of the Municipality of the County of Kings.

"It's not the sexy part of infrastructure. It's in-ground where nobody sees it, but you can't grow anything above ground in terms of buildings and new residential communities without it."

The county's approximately$8-million project will be split between all three levels of government, with the province putting up $2.7 million, Ottawa $3.2 millionand the municipality about $2.1 million.

Muttart said the county's project will see new wastewater lines "right across the municipality,"anexpansion ofCanning's sewage lagoon, and new or upgraded sewer lift stations. Those stations help move sewer lines over hills and are critical in power outages or storms, Muttart said.

The project is needed to increase the overall efficiency of the municipality's system and allow for more housing density as the area keeps growing.

It's expected that Kings County will process residential development applications forabout 3,000 units this fiscal year alone, Muttart said, ranging from single-family homes to duplexes to large apartment buildings.

His area has seen a major influx of people over the past few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and reliable internet through most of the province, Muttart said.

"Rural areas have become destinations for folks who want to reduce the stress in their lives and come to live and enjoy rural areas, while still maintaining their business experience," Muttart said.

When sewer lines are dug up along Chapel Road in Canning, the village itself will upgradethe 1,200 metres of water lines on that road through their $2.4 million project.

Angela Cruikshank, village commission chair, said working with Kings County on the application to provincial and federal governments ended up saving them a lot of money.

"We're just super excited that it's actually going through, like I mean this just gives us so much more confidence in the system that we have," Cruikshank said.

The village itself is contributing $654,933, while the province will pay $818,667 and the federal government $982,400.