It isn't something you necessarily see, but it plays a key role in Dauphin and chances are you have heard people talk about it over the past twelve years or so.
The city's lagoon and wastewater treatment facility will be getting long-awaited upgrades thanks to significant funding recently announced by the Manitoba and federal governments to the tune of $9,100,000.
For Dauphin it could mean attracting new business, but the city's Economic Development Manager, Martijn Van Lujin, says lagoon upgrades are part of a bigger picture.
"It's not just about attracting new businesses which is extremely important, but it's also about creating the right elements in place to be able to do that. That's by creating well-being, healthy communities, safety, there's a lot of things that play a role in why a business wants to come here. What we do with our waste is part of that as well."
Van Lujin also says the lagoon will not be expanded in size but thanks to new technology, wastewater will be able to get processed a lot faster. "That will guarantee that we can use our lagoon for a very long time to come."
Dauphin has seen a lot of new development in recent years including Vermillion Growers, the Dauphin Business Park, and some work being done in the south end of the city. Soon, there will be room for more.
"It's all about getting ready... and I think it's good if we proactively project what we might see in the future, then we get ready for that. That readiness factor in economic development is extremely important - when I talk to a developer I want to be able to say that we have the capacity to work with wastewater, instead of saying 'oh we might be able to help'. Now we can say we do."
