NIPAWIN — Nipawin council has awarded McAllister Drilling Inc. and Balzer’s Canada Inc. $1.16 million plus GST contracts to create three new raw water production wells for the town.
The capital budget, previously approved by council, has $1.8 million allotted for the project.
The tender with McAllister Drilling is to drill the three wells at $411,000 plus GST, while the tender with Balzer’s Canada is to supply and install the wells for $747,000 plus GST.
McAllister Drilling is expected to begin drilling 30 days after the tender was awarded on Aug. 9. The rest of the construction is planned to be completed in 2022.
In addition to these three wells which are expected to be brought online next year, the town is expecting three previously approved raw water wells to be brought online this year.
In 2016, the Town of Nipawin was awarded an infrastructure grant from the federal and provincial government, totalling $13.2 million through the Provincial-Territorial Infrastructure Component – National and Regional Projects (PTIC-NRP). Under the grant, Nipawin was covering the remainder of the estimated $20.8 million total project cost.
Barry Elliott, Nipawin’s administrator, said the wells will be partially funded by the grant which still has some of the federal funds remaining.
“There is still funding remaining and that’s why council elected to proceed through the three wells,” Elliott said. “What it will mean is the town will have six new wells that are used for drawing raw water that supplies the water treatment plant.”
