Months of meetings, flyers, public consultation and a presentation to the Saskatchewan Municipal Board. 2015 was the year of learning about what is under the streets of Moose Jaw.

Cast Iron Watermains rings in at #2 on our list of the top news stories of 2015. Cast iron replacement is worth well over a hundred million dollars and will take at least two decades to complete. The plan for residents impacted by the work to pay 30% of the cost has lead to protests, petitions and even an ad hock committee to form.

City Manager Matt Noble explained why this split was chosen.

"The useful life (of the existing watermains) was stretched for 3 decades, aproximently," Noble said.  "Tax increses that should have been employed, weren't imployed to upgrade them.  So those properties, not nessesarily the people in those properties, but those properties beifited from lower tax rates then they probably should have had."

Noble and members of council have stressed for months that all residents of Moose Jaw will pay for the program in the form of a general tax increase to cover the city's 70% cost of the project. That plan is currently being reviewed by the province with a decision expected in the next few weeks.

And that funding model is what Murray Feist has an issue with.  He made a presentation to the Saskatchewan Municipal Board earlier this month.

"I don't know if they've really considered what that environment (of the current plan) does to a city....Will people move into a city where they may not know if they buy a house, is it going to cost $15,000 extra?" Feist said.

That plan is currently being reviewed by the province with a decision expected in the next few weeks.