Provincial funding the city received for meeting its housing targets has been earmarked for lift station upgrades in the New Sudbury and South End neighbourhoods.
City council members will make a final decision on the upgrades during their Sept. 9 meeting, at which it’s proposed that two years of $1.52 million in provincial funding go toward the stations.
The city exceeded its housing targets in both 2023 and 2024, which qualified them to receive their annual share of the three-year $1.2-billion provincial Building Faster Fund program.
In 2023, ground broke on 436 new housing units, which far exceeded that year’s target of 279. In 2024, the city issued building permits that would result in the creation of 854 units, which blew past that year’s target of 317.
As of June 17 of this year, the city had issued building permits to result in the creation of 215 units, which closes in on their provincial target of 380 for the year.
Build Faster Fund money is earmarked for “housing-enabling infrastructure and related costs that support community growth,” according to a municipal report by city senior planner Melissa Riou tabled for the Sept. 9 meeting.
The funds will go toward two lift station upgrades, including the $4.4-million Don Lita lift station upgrade in New Sudbury and the $4.5-million Ramsey lift station upgrade in the South End.
The Don Lita lift station upgrade will increase wastewater capacity in the Falconbridge/Hudson/Lasalle catchment area, including a recently approved 52-unit multi-residential complex at 944 Falconbridge Rd.
The Ramsey lift station upgrade will increase wastewater capacity to allow two draft plans of subdivision to proceed. This includes the Keast Drive (University Park) subdivision consisting of 54 single detached dwelling lots and three multiple-dwelling blocks for a total of 146 units.
Click here for a video of the University Park subdivision, promoted under the tagline “the last Ramsey Lake development.”
The 72-lot Twin Lakes subdivision by Dalron Construction Ltd., which has spent approximately two decades in the planning stages, will also be afforded the wastewater capacity to proceed to the north of South Bay Road and to the south of Bethel Lake.
The Ramsey lift station upgrade will also allow for future expansions at Laurentian University, St.
Joseph’s Villa, North Bay Regional Health Centre’s Kirkwood Place Campus, and lands adjacent to St. Joseph’s Villa.
The city’s 2024-25 budget describes a municipal wastewater treatment system which includes 69 lift stations, which work as pumps to move wastewater through a collection system that includes 10 wastewater treatment plants, two operational wastewater lagoons, a hauled liquid waste receiving station and a biosolids treatment facility.
Similar to the Building Faster Fund in how the city is spending it, last year saw the province pledge $34.9 million through the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund, which is going toward increasing water/wastewater capacity in the Lively/Walden area to help spur residential builds. The federal government later contributed $28 million toward the $70-million municipal project.
The Lively/Walden-area project includes lift station upgrades, linear infrastructure and renovations to the Walden wastewater treatment plant.
The Sept. 9 city council meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. The meeting can be viewed in-person at Tom Davies Square or livestreamed by clicking here.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.