Some roads in rural Saskatchewan aren’t fit for a horse and buggy.
The claims might be exaggerated, but the province’s rural municipalities say the grid road system is ready to crack under increased heavy truck traffic brought on by the loss of the Crow Benefit rail transportation subsidy and rail line abandonment.
Municipalities in the southeastern corner of the province bear the added burden of heavy road use by oil industry vehicles.
At a convention this month, municipal representatives grilled provincial transportation minister Andy Renaud on why revenues from the province’s oil industry can’t go directly into road improvements, especially in areas where trucks hauling oil are causing much of the deterioration.
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“These roads are not even fit for horses and the money coming in is from that southeast corner with new oil wells,” said Storthoaks Reeve George Godenir.
Renaud responded by urging local governments to work with the province to put together a management strategy.
“Route management can be a success, but the province and municipalities must work together,” said Renaud.
The federal, provincial and municipal governments must join forces to establish economically viable short-line railways “to put traffic back on steel where it makes economic sense,” Renaud said.
“We’ve got a lot of roads but I have to say we don’t have a lot of money,” Renaud answered, and suggested some of the blame lies with the federal government.
“We have to work within the context that we have limited funding and the federal government is moving out of any responsibility for transportation,” Renaud said.
SARM has asked that $21 million out of the $64 million Canada Agri-Infrastructure pot go toward road repair in 1997. A decision on the request is not expected until the end of November.
SARM delegates also voted at their convention to join forces with the Churchill Opportunities Foundation Inc., or COFI, to work to soften the impact of branch-line abandonment on municipal road construction and maintenance costs.
COFI has changed its focus since the Churchill line was sold last week to concentrate more on lines that feed to the Churchill line.
Another resolution directs SARM staff to facilitate training and leadership in the area of implementing load size requirements and placing and enforcing road bans.
