Lakeshore to receive $37M from Ottawa for sewer infrastructure

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It’s the single-largest investment Lakeshore has ever received.

Essex County’s easterly-most municipality is receiving roughly $37 million from the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund to advance projects in its water and wastewater master plan, Irek Kusmierczyk, Member of Parliament for Windsor—Tecumseh, announced Saturday.

“I’m walking on a cloud,” Lakeshore Mayor Tracey Bailey told the Star.

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“We have challenged wastewater systems. We have sanitary constraints. We have conveyance constraints — we have many residents that experienced things like flooded basements that are just totally unacceptable.

“This saves the taxpayers of the Municipality of Lakeshore $37 million fixing this problem, and it probably advanced our work 10 years.”

For its part, the municipality will spend $55 million on the projects, which include:

• Replacing the trunk sewer along County Road 22 from Puce Road to the Denis St. Pierre Water Pollution Control Plant
• Expanding capacity for two pumping stations;
• Installing a new trunk sewer along County Road 22 from Old Tecumseh Road to Puce Road.
• Installing a new trunk sewer and force main along County Roat 22 from Amy Croft Drive at West Pike Creek Road to Puce Road
• Replacing 400 metres of pipes along Patillo Road from Advance Boulevard to Silver Creek Industrial Drive
• Replacing 1.1 kilometres of pipes along Amy Croft Drive from Commercial Boulevard to West Pike Creek Road

“I am proud to deliver the largest federal investment in Lakeshore’s history that will unlock thousands of homes for working families, seniors, and young people, and will create thousands of jobs by unlocking major manufacturing investment in Lakeshore’s industrial park and employment lands. It’s time to build, and today, with this historic housing and infrastructure investment, we unlock Lakeshore’s full potential,” Kusmierczyk said at St. Clair Shores Park on Saturday.

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While the investments will support growth, Bailey said they will also benefit existing residents.

“My focus has been around fixing the current conditions for our residents that live here today that are experiencing constraints,” Bailey said.

Lakeshore’s Water and Wastewater Master Plan, adopted by Council in October of 2024, will guide critical water and wastewater infrastructure investments over the next two decades — at a total cost of $465 million when adjusted for inflation and other factors.

Earlier this year, Lakeshore also received over $7 million from the Government of Canada’s Housing Accelerator Fund earlier this year, to help the municipality prepare its infrastructure for new homes over the next decade.

According to the Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund aims to accelerate the construction and upgrading of drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, and solid waste infrastructure that supports housing.

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