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Ottawa plans to twin deadly highwayLake Louise project tab put at $250MJason Fekete, Calgary Herald Friday, April 04, 2008 The federal government plans to twin the entire deadly stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Lake Louise and is looking for upwards of $250 million to do so, the Herald has learned. While the government is trying to nail down the funding and finalize construction costs and timelines, the Conservative member of Parliament for the area said an announcement is imminent. "I expect it in the next few weeks -- very few," Wild Rose MP Myron Thompson said. Calgary MP and Industry Minister Jim Prentice said the entire Alberta Tory caucus -- including Prime Minister Stephen Harper -- is mindful of the tragic accidents on the Trans-Canada and that twinning the rest of the treacherous section to the B.C. border is a top priority. "We appreciate that the federal government needs to address the issue. We've been working on it over the last number of weeks," Prentice, the regional minister for Alberta, told the Herald. "We are closely evaluating the project right now. We are assessing the cost information." Ottawa has already allocated $87 million to twin about 10 kilometres of a 32-kilometre section of highway around Lake Louise, with the initial segment expected to be completed by late 2008. The government is now looking to widen the rest of the 32-kilometre stretch from Castle Mountain to the British Columbia border to four lanes -- a project estimated between $200 million and $250 million, Prentice said. But he suggested a final decision on it could be several months away. The federal government was sitting on a $10-billion surplus 10 months into the last fiscal year, the Finance Department reported last week. However, the recent federal budget projected a surplus of $2.3 billion in the new fiscal year. Officials in the office of Transport and Infrastructure Minister Lawrence Cannon are evaluating how long construction could take, Prentice added. Two other senior government sources confirmed the project will proceed, but weren't sure of when it would be officially announced or when work could commence. An official in Environment Canada said the department is looking to complete the project in stages once funding is secured. Thompson, who's been lobbying for the highway to be widened for 15 years, said the influential Prentice has been pushing hard for the project and that it's essentially a done deal. "I'm assuming it's all going to work out and am anxiously waiting for the trip to Banff," added the outspoken Thompson. A 10-kilometre section of highway east of Lake Louise is one of the deadliest stretches of highway in Western Canada. It has claimed more than 30 lives in the last decade, including two men and one woman who were killed in a semi-trailer pileup in late January. Some truckers have described being a bit "mesmerized" by the two-lane section of highway near Lake Louise, after having travelled on four lanes for several hundred kilometres. The road has also taken a toll on wildlife, particularly grizzly and black bears. Banff Mayor John Stutz said he's been lobbying the federal and provincial governments for years to twin the remainder of the treacherous highway, but hadn't heard of any commitment from Ottawa to follow through. "I certainly applaud it," Stutz said. "This is one of the most heavily used, most dangerous sections of our transcontinental highway. It should be a priority." Federal Liberal infrastructure critic Paul Zed said widening the highway to four lanes would be a clear priority for the Grits, particularly if it saves lives and enables economic development -- but doesn't inflict too much damage on the environment. "It seems passing strange that it has taken the Conservative government this long to have invested in it, especially when you have the large number of members of Parliament from the province of Alberta," Zed quipped. He noted that failing to invest in critical infrastructure such as highways is part of the fallout of trimming the GST down to five per cent, because each percentage point drop costs the federal treasury about $6 billion. Officials with Alberta Transportation said they have repeatedly pushed Ottawa to twin the entire section of highway, but that it has sometimes fallen on deaf ears. Being a cross-country highway and in a national park, the road is the responsibility of the federal government, they noted. "It was something that we tried to urge the feds to do, but they haven't been too keen to do it," said Alberta Transportation spokesman Jerry Bellikka. © The Calgary Herald 2008 Copyright © 2008 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved. CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved. 2 of 2 04/04/2008 10:43 AM |
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