The Rural Municipality of St. Clements and the Manitoba Water Services Board recently engaged the consulting
services of engineering firm WSP to assess the potential for constructing a new sewer system for Grand Marais. Recently, they have initiated a public consultation process which has made it clear that the municipality intends on proceeding with the installation of a new sewer system in Grand Marais with or without the support of local residents. While the intent of this project may be noble, this is of serious concern to residents of Grand Marais for the following reasons:

1) Residents of Grand Marais were surveyed to assess support for the project but at no point have the results of this survey been communicated to residents. There is no evidence to suggest that residents are in support of the project.
2) The study conducted by WSP suggests that each individual property owner will carry upfront costs ranging between $5000-$13,000. The document provided to community members summarizing the WSP study also infers that connection to the new system will be mandatory, meaning every single resident of Grand Marais will need to carry these upfront costs regardless of their support for the project. 
3) The document provided to community members which summarizes the results of the WSP study states that municipal costs associated with the project will be levied upon the residents of Grand Marais through taxation. This will result in a significant increase in yearly taxation costs for residents of the community of Grand Marais.
4) The costs associated with this project will be borne by residents of Grand Marais in the midst of an affordability crisis and inflationary levels above 8%. Many families will simply be unable to afford the upfront and additional yearly costs associated with this project.

For the reasons outlined above, we the undersigned demand that the municipality offer residents of Grand Marais an opportunity to vote in referendum to determine community support for the installation of a new sewer system in Grand Marais. No one living in Grand Marais should be forced to bear this level of additional taxation without representation.