Yorkton mayor highlights city’s infrastructure challenge at UN forum

Yorkton's mayor is in New York City for a United Nations forum highlighting the city's aging wastewater system as a barrier to growth.

Yorkton Mayor Aaron Kienle brought the city’s infrastructure challenges to an international audience Monday, speaking at a United Nations forum in New York City.

Kienle participated in Cities that Work for People: Connecting Social Policy and Infrastructure for Resilient Communities, a Canadian-led side event at the 2026 High-Level Political Forum focused on building sustainable and resilient communities.

During the discussion, Kienle emphasized the urgent need to replace Yorkton’s aging wastewater treatment plant, calling it one of the city’s biggest barriers to future growth.

The mayor said Yorkton, a city of about 20,000 residents that serves a regional population of 150,000, has reached the limits of its current wastewater infrastructure. He noted the facility is no longer able to meet future growth demands while also struggling to comply with environmental regulations.

Just recently, heavy rainfall that left many neighbouring communities crippled highlighted capacity limitations of the city’s wastewater system. Kienle said that during the storm event, wastewater flows exceeded normal operating levels.

“About 40 million litres of water were pushed directly into the creek because our system simply couldn’t handle it,” the mayor told CTV News last week.

He added that with a new wastewater treatment plant, the city would be able to handle a similar weather event without harming the environment.

Kienle told attendees at the forum that the major infrastructure project is expected to cost between $200 million and $300 million, a price tag that is difficult for a small city to absorb on its own.

“We simply don’t have the tax base, as many smaller communities and smaller cities don’t have the tax base to pay for major infrastructure,” he said.

It was not the first time the mayor of Yorkton had taken the issue beyond city limits. In October 2025, Kienle visited Ottawa to meet with federal leaders about restoring cost-shared infrastructure investment programs, prompted by the need for a new plant.

“We need the federal government’s support. We need the provincial government’s support, and the City of Yorkton is certainly willing to put up our share as well,” the mayor told CTV News last October.

Earlier this year, city council voted to proceed with the full design of the plant.

“We were at 30 per cent design. We’re now working [toward] full design, which is $9 million,” the mayor said. “[It’s] very expensive to even plan for the facility.”

In his speech on Monday, Kienle stressed that the wastewater plant has become a bottleneck for housing development, industrial expansion and future health-care projects in the city.

He said Yorkton has been working with both provincial and federal governments to explore funding solutions while also building reserves locally to prepare for the project.

Kienle highlighted how large-scale infrastructure investments made over the past decade helped prevent another devastating flood and expressed hope that those successes would help garner public support for future major capital projects.

“How many people in my city are excited about wastewater? Not many,” he said.

“But now, when I talk to residents about the necessity for us to spend large amounts of money, hopefully in collaboration with the provincial and federal governments, [their] wants [for a new arena] are not going to outweigh the need that is that wastewater treatment plant.”

While discussing broader issues such as housing, population growth and social supports, Kienle said communities must keep people at the centre of planning decisions and ensure infrastructure investments support long-term resilience.