New Brunswick has signed a deal with the federal government giving access to just over $150 million in funding over the next 10 years to help communities build or improve infrastructure related to drinking water, wastewater, stormwater and solid waste.
Tantramar Mayor Andrew Black says New Brunswick’s access to the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund, or CHIF, has been highly anticipated by municipalities in the province.
But Black says he’s still not sure if Tantramar will be submitting an application to the CHIF to help cover the sewer and water costs for a proposed 62-unit non-profit housing co-op on Fairfield Road.
The Freshwinds Eco-Village Housing Co-op has come twice to council to ask the municipality to seek out infrastructure funding through programs like the federal Housing Accelerator Fund and the province’s Regional Development Corporation, which will now administer the CHIF.
In November, Plan 360 planner Sam Gerrand told council that the proposed 62-unit development on Fairfield road will require significant infrastructure work, including the replacement of a sanitary sewer lift station.
Black says applications to the CHIF might get started in several ways, either through the Mayor’s Roundtable on Housing, through a recommendation coming from municipal staff, or at the request of developers.
Black said that since Freshwinds has already requested help from council twice, “it may be just a matter of communicating with them internally both from the governance and the operation side of the municipality.”
The Mayor’s Roundtable on Housing was set to meet this past week to analyze information gathered at a housing forum held in Sackville in January.
RELATED:
