A federal program to build grain roads has expired but the need has not, says the president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
Over the duration of the five-year Prairie Grain Roads Program, $217 million was spent on the construction and upgrading of secondary highways and municipal roads in Saskatchewan.
“It is estimated that another $500 million is needed to complete the program,” said SARM president David Marit.
At least half of the 12,000 kilometres of grain corridor roads in the province are not up to snuff.
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However, judging by the response Marit has received from unenthused politicians, the program that doled out $175 million to the western provinces, 61 percent of which went to Saskatchewan, will not be resurrected.
“They haven’t been very receptive to us and we don’t know why. Are they not receptive because it was a Liberal program?”
Marit said politics should not get in the way of addressing the most pressing infrastructure issue facing municipalities.
He thought federal politicians would be impressed that Ottawa’s $106.8 million leveraged a further $110 million from the province of Saskatchewan and its municipalities. But there doesn’t appear to be any appetite on Parliament Hill to travel that road again.
That isn’t stopping SARM from continuing its lobbying campaign. Securing continued road funding was the association’s top priority when directors met with Conservative officials during their pre-budget consultations this fall and it will top the agenda again when Marit meets with federal agriculture minister Chuck Strahl in the next few weeks.
“If the feds say, ‘no,’ it really does put us back on our heels as far as infrastructure in rural Saskatchewan. It really does,” he said.
Ken Thompson, director of environmental programs with the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration, which administered the government program, said it was highly unusual for Ottawa to get involved in road issues in the first place. That expenditure has traditionally been the purview of the provinces and municipalities.
“There has to be a careful evaluation of what continued federal involvement should be,” he said.
Officials recognize that grain elevator consolidation, which has seen the number of handling points on the Prairies shrink to 178 from 645 over the past decade, has taken its toll on the roads, as will the further diversification of the agricultural economy.
But before the federal government commits any continued funding on rebuilding the rural road network, it wants to see a detailed long-term plan of what roads will be required to service emerging value-added businesses and how they will tie in with existing rail lines.
“The strategic planning has not been completed in any of the prairie provinces in order for us to make a real accurate assessment,” said Thompson.
Marit contends Saskatchewan has prepared a detailed plan and there is no way rural taxpayers can afford what is required to repair the damage caused by increased hauling distances for agricultural commodities and the truck traffic associated with the oil sector.
“The ability of RMs to maintain the road network has become, in many cases, impossible,” he said.
The feds are not the only ones who need to step up to the plate. SARM is also seeking additional road money from the province.
The association has asked for an extra $30 million in revenue sharing dollars to deal with escalating road repairs, fuel bills and equipment costs.
