The City of Yellowknife says the cost of a new underwater pipeline to its municipal water source has risen from $34 million to $57 million in the four years since federal funding was received. The city has almost $26 million in federal cash from a disaster mitigation fund to put toward the pipeline from the Yellowknife River to its treatment facility. Initially, that left the city with $8 million to find. But a fresh assessment of the project puts the bill at $23 million more than was first thought in 2019, before the pandemic and various global supply chain issues. Under its agreement with the federal government, the city has to find all of that extra cash – a total of $31 million once you add the cost increase to the initial $8 million.
City of Yellowknife to draw drinking water from the bay during pipeline construction
The City of Yellowknife hosted an open house Wednesday to provide updates on its $34.4 million project to replace the 53-year-old pipeline that supplies residents with drinking water. The new pipeline is scheduled to be in place by winter of 2026. It will continue to draw water from the Yellowknife River, as is the current system, but the city will have to pull water from Yellowknife Bay during construction beginning in 2024 for a period that could last up to 12 months.