Officials say it looks unlikely construction will begin on a $47 million regional Waste Water Treatment Facility this year.

While Winkler City Council had hoped to see construction begin in 2018, provincial and federal funding is still not secured.

"There's been no firm support for the project from either this year," Deputy Mayor Henry Siemens says. "Our hope had been that potentially there would be construction this year."

Siemens explains the project is impossible without dollars from the Manitoba and federal governments, "Winkler cannot, even in partnership with Stanley, build this project on our own."

However, he says they're encouraged by the feds warming to the general idea of a 40/40/20 split with municipalities, with the province and federal government taking the lion's share of the cost.

"They recognize for many communities in Canada when you start looking at $30 million projects, a municipality that collects eight percent of the tax revenue is simply not going to be able to fund it at an equal ratio," Siemens says.

The on-going operating costs will also stay local.

"We want to have this project move forward, but ultimately in order to move them forward, we have to have Canada and Manitoba at the table."