The Mayor of Tache says ever since he joined council two years ago, upgrading the Landmark water system has been a top priority.

And Robert Rivard says in 2016 they finally saw this move forward.

(Robert Rivard)"We've bought the land, we've done the test wells," says Rivard. "Early spring we should be starting to build the water treatment plant, hopefully within a year from then, Landmark will have good drinking water, safe drinking water moving forward."

Rivard notes the other half of that project is the water distribution system for Landmark. The goal had been to complete the plant and distribution system as one project. But according to Rivard, funding was less than they had hoped for. He notes once the distribution system is complete, they will move to the next stage of upgrading the pipes and everything in the ground in order to give Landmark a full water system complete with fire hydrants.

Rivard says once the water treatment plant is in place, housing construction can begin again in Landmark. He notes there are three or four developments currently on hold and he expects that within six years the population of Landmark could double.

2016 also saw the municipality complete the expansion of the Lorette lagoon. Rivard notes this allows lagoon capacity to grow from 5,500 residents to more than 10,000. Along with expansion, the municipality also put in a phosphorous removal system, though Rivard says construction of that system is costing more than originally expected. Initially, costs were expected to be between $600,000 and $700,000 but Rivard says engineers had thought they could use a gravity flow system.

"It can't," he says. "It has to be pumped, so then we had to build a pump house."

Rivard says the final cost is now around $2 million. However, it allows them to tie in both the Lorette and Landmark lagoons.

Meanwhile, the municipality is still moving forward with plans for a recreation complex in Lorette. Rivard says the $15 million complex is supposed to be funded $2 million locally, $3 million from the RM of Tache and $5 million from both the provincial and federal governments. Prior to the provincial election, the previous government announced it would fund fifty per cent of the project, up to $8 million.

"This new government has not told us we wouldn't get it," says Rivard. "We are still under the assumption that they are looking at it."

And finally, Rivard says in 2016, the municipality had its development plan approved by the province.

"We want to keep the main development around our community hubs and try to protect agriculture land as much as we can while still allowing people to divide off lots here and there," he says. "And right now we are in the process of our new zoning bylaws to go along with the new development plan."

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