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Keremeos flush with grant money for waste water upgrades

Gas Tax grants were announced Friday, Keremeos receives more than $4 million
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Keremeos received over $4 million in grant funding Friday morning from the federal Gas Tax Fund.

The bulk of the money ($3,949,000) will be used to upgrade the waste water treatment plant over the next three years. While $89,000 will be used to undertake an assessment on the village’s sanitary and road system networks as part of the Asset Management Program.

The announcement was made Friday by the Government of Canada along with the Government of B.C. and Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM). In B.C. 108 projects were approved, and four conditionally approved including a $6 million Penticton Memorial Arena Renewal Project and a $6 million Summerland integrated solar project.

RELATED: Penticton gets $6M grant for arena

Other communities that received gas funding around the regional district include:

Regional District Okanagan Similkameen received $2,061,470 for upgrades at the Okanagan Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant; RDOS $225,000 for Asset Management capacity building; Penticton $50,000 for Facilities Information (GIS) Database; Summerland $110,000 for water and road infrastructure integrated plans.

RELATED: Summerland planning solar project to power community

The Government of Canada provides more than $278 million in indexed, annual funding for local government infrastructure in B.C. through the federal Gas Tax Fund.

UBCM administers the Gas Tax Fund in B.C., in partnership with the governments of Canada and B.C. The funding flows through UBCM to all local governments on a per capita basis.

The funding for these projects comes through the application-based Strategic Priorities Fund of the federal Gas Tax Fund in B.C.