April 15, 2025; Liverpool, NS: Water and wastewater services in Queens County will see upgrades and extensions as the result of a $21.5 million dollar investment, cost shared by Nova Scotia’s Municipal Growth Plan and Region of Queens Municipality. The Province’s contribution is $10.7 million, and $10.8 million is to be funded by Region of Queens Municipality.
The project will upgrade some water and wastewater systems that are currently at or over capacity, improving the amount of water and water pressure for 1,250 existing homes and businesses on the Municipal Water Utility, as well as for essential services like firefighting efforts. Expansion of the water and wastewater services into the Mount Pleasant area will support development of more than 60 hectares of land.
“Queens in an attractive community in which to live. Our population has been growing in the past several years and our housing stock is very low. Council supports expanding water and wastewater for housing that also benefits our community’s prosperity. Businesses, agencies, service providers, industries, to name a few, require customers and workers and these people require homes,” said Darlene Norman, Mayor of Region of Queens Municipality. “This funding will allow us to move forward with much needed upgrades, while at the same time expanding the system to manage the growth we are experiencing.”
Municipalities provide important services to the community, and well-maintained infrastructure encourages development. Upgrades and expansion of Region of Queens Municipality’s water and sewer infrastructure creates the potential to increase the community’s prosperity through increased growth and attraction efforts.
“Staff are exploring cost recovery methods to ensure the expansion efforts are borne in a fair way by developers and the Municipality,” said Mayor Norman. “Growth benefits everyone, and we appreciate the support of the province in helping us to continue to grow and develop.”
Region of Queens Municipality applied for the Municipal Capital Growth Program to help advance the necessary work to upgrade the water and wastewater systems, which are over capacity knowing that to add users to the existing system would result in issues. The funding support from the province enables the Municipality to do the required upgrades and well as to expand the system into the Mount Pleasant area where there is potential to build approximately 350 housing units to serve over 1,000 residents. The Municipal Capital Growth Program which was announced in February was designed to respond to the infrastructure needs of municipalities and addresses critical issues like housing, climate change, accessibility and growth.
Click to watch the video of the announcement:
https://youtu.be/5JQApQuAo98
