Engineering consultants working for the City of Yellowknife have identified three priority projects to improve the city’s water system: upgrades at pumphouse three and four and an additional reservoir storage facility for potable water at pumphouse four.

In a presentation to the city, they estimated the cost to do that work at $33.5 million. 

The city hopes to fund the projects with funding from the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund (CHIF).

If successful, 75 per cent would be funded federally and 25 per cent would be funded through the city.

“We got ahead of the curve a little bit just to take advantage of this funding opportunity,” Director of Public Works and Engineering Chris Greencorn said of the work of prioritizing projects.

The Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund has been accepting new applications, and the city asked engineers to identify the top three priorities out of its soon-to-be completed water master plan.

Greencorn said they would apply for the funds through the territorial Department of Municipal and Community Affairs for a territorial portion  of the funding. 

Yellowknife city administration has nearly completed the water master plan that will provide a clear picture of the drinking water system in the city and its most pressing issues. 

In 2019, the city secured $25.8 million in federal funding through the government’s Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund for upgrades, including replacing an 8.4-kilometre pipeline on the Yellowknife River. 

That plan shifted in 2025, and the money was instead put toward replacing pumphouse one, which was deemed to be in a “state of failure,” and towards work on pumphouse two.

Greencorn said that work is underway now.

“It’s been a little slow because of elections and things like that, but we finally got an amendment to our contribution agreement. We are ramping up the detailed design,” he said.

He added that design and regulatory work is expected to occur over the next 12 to 18 months and that construction is still a couple of years out.

When it comes to overall water infrastructure in the city, Greencorn said Yellowknife isn’t the only municipality prioritizing the most pressing infrastructure repairs while balancing budgets.

“It’s just aging, and not enough capital investment has been made over the decades to keep up with the failures that are occurring. So it’s a bit of a bigger picture game, but we’re doing our best to address it with obviously the budgets and the staff that we have,“ Greencorn said.

Municipalities across Canada dealing with pressing infrastructure needs

Kerry Black is an associate professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of Calgary’s School of Engineering. She said water infrastructure and infrastructure in the country as a whole is deteriorating. 

“There’s a couple things that are at play. There’s the fact that it was put in rather quickly post war for a booming population. And then there’s the fact that we have a lot of infrastructure that hasn’t been adequately invested in over the years,” she said.

“Now we’re hitting the point where everyone’s starting to see these things popping up. And as soon as it starts happening across the entire country and in a bigger form, we’re going to be in a really tough place financially to try and deal with that.”

While cities grow, Black said the number of government dollars available to deal with infrastructure needs are on the decline. She said part of this is due to political considerations and public opinion. 

“People don’t want to pay for it. It’s not something that gets you elected or reelected. And, in fact, sometimes it can be the demise of your political career if you stake everything on renewing infrastructure, no matter how important it might be,” she said.

Probably the most controversial, least popular way to influence Canadians’ relationship with their water and consumption is by increasing water rates, she added.

“If I’m paying more for my water, it’s helping the bottom line for municipalities who really do need to find ways to get more dollars through the door to be able to deal with what is going to become, you know, a pretty big issue,” Black said.

Up until recently, Yellowknife’s water and sewer rate structure had been the same since the 1990s. A rate structure review came as the city faced a $1.9-million deficit in the fund that covers the maintenance and operation of its water and sewer infrastructure. 

Greencorn said he expects the water master plan to be finalized in 2026 and that regardless of the outcome of the CHIF funding application, the city will have to find a way to budget for the priority repairs.