Ottawa plans to twin deadly highway

Lake Louise project tab put at $250M


Jason 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

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