The mayor of St. John's is crying foul about new federal regulations that will soon be imposed on municipalities, but are coming without a financing plan to pay for the multi-billion-dollar scheme.

Dennis O'Keefe said St. John's alone will have to pay more than $135 million for secondary-processing upgrades necessary to meet rules announced last week.

"Towns and cities across this province and across this country cannot, cannot go it alone. It's just not in the cards," he said.

O'Keefe said even though the upgrades will take more than a decade to design and build, it's simply unfair for municipalities to carry the burden without substantial financial support for higher levels of government.

Primarily, O'Keefe said the federal government needs to pay a large part of the rules it has introduced.

"The federal government [is responsible] because they are the parents of this regulation," said O'Keefe, who says the lengthy ramp-up time at least allows for the federal and provincial governments to become involved.

"There's time now to start the negotiations. These things take a lot of time," he said.

"We'll do our share. We'll do our part. I expect the province and the federal government to do its part also."

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is estimating the costs for upgrades nationally will range between $20 billion and $40 billion.

The federal government, however, is estimating that costs will run about $5 billion.