Sun Peaks is looking to borrow just over $8 million to do two major infrastructure projects.

Mayor Al Raine says that money would be paid back over 20 years. He says the village would expect to recover 75 per cent of those costs over time, from development cost charges for new buildings.

“We need to build a new reservoir and then a line that would hook it up to new development, that’s about $6.5 million dollars. And then the wastewater treatment system, we’re going to upgrade and improve that. So that’s just about $1.5 (million). So altogether it’s the biggest borrowing we’ve ever done, just over $8 million dollars,” Raine says.

“The wastewater, we know there’s some pressure to upgrade it and do some replacement parts. And certainly on the water supply, we’re using ground water but there’s a limit to how much ground water there is. So this would then allow us to build a reservoir that, in the spring, would catch the water coming off the upper mountain and then store it in a reservoir so we could then use it over the winter months.”

The village has applied for a $5.9-million-dollar grant for the reservoir project in particular, and Raine says staff and council are still hopeful it will be approved next year.

To borrow more than $8 million, village staff are proposing that council receive public approval through the alternate assent process, which would mean that the borrowing would be approved unless at least 10 per cent of eligible voters in the village vote against the bylaw.