The Town of Outlook is going to be the beneficiary of major money that will help pay for a decommissioning project related to the local landfill.
As announced at the public meeting held last week in Outlook, the Town is receiving a whopping $733,300 thanks to a grant through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure program. The funds will help pay for the landfill decommissioning project that the Town has undertaken, and when combined with the Town’s own share of municipal funding, the number equates to an astounding total of $1,000,000.
The funding model breaks down as follows:
Federal funding - $400,000
Provincial funding - $333,300
Municipal funding - $266,700
Total = $1,000,000
It’s the largest single grant funding ever received by the Town of Outlook. Between 2002 and 2016, the Town had received $262,232 in federal and provincial grants, so this announcement makes for a quantum leap forward in heightened funding dollars.
A few years ago, the Town had embarked on a regional landfill project because the old landfill was cited by the Ministry of Environment with a number of infractions and some major work to do.
The first cell of the new landfill site, south of the current landfill, was developed and now Phase 1 has been permitted and is operational. But when the Town had brought the old landfill up to compliance, they were obliged to close it (decommission). It has to be put to bed properly, including being compacted and covered, and there are piezometers that monitor the leachate when the garbage decomposes.
“We are mandated by law to decommission the old landfill site, and it has to be put to bed properly and monitored,” said Councillor Maureen Applin, touching on the process while announcing the grant funding at the town meeting last week.
Those sites now have to be monitored, and the cost of putting the old landfill site to bed was said to be around the million-dollar mark. It’s something that the Town couldn’t afford on its own right now, and something that required major funds of which they didn’t have access. At least, until now.
“This is really significant for Outlook,” said Applin. “This is one of the nine projects that we submitted grant applications for under the ICIP program, and it was one of the first projects to be funded. We still have eight to go, and we’re really hopeful we’ll get money for those! We’re very grateful to have received this!”
