More than 200 kilometres of Saskatchewan highway could be converted to gravel this year, the highways minister confirmed last week.
Maynard Sonntag told reporters the main reason is public safety.
But the Saskatchewan Party suggested the government is going to turn over responsibility for those roads to municipalities.
Sonntag said there is no “program” to convert roads to gravel. The 210 km on the list for possible conversion this year exceeds the 195 km converted between 1996 and 1999.
“We’re doing this for the sole purpose of safety for the public,” Sonntag said. “In an area where thin membrane surface is badly broken up, we feel that this is the safety thing to do.”
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The portions of highway on the conversion list are as short as one km and as long as 16 km, and can be found across the province.
Sonntag spent most of last week in the legislature blaming the state of Saskatchewan highways on the provincial debt, lack of federal funding and the sell-off of 436 pieces of road construction equipment by the Tory government in 1984.
Wayne Morsky, president of the Road Builders and Heavy Construction Association of Saskatchewan, said private contractors have enough equipment to build and maintain highways, but the government isn’t spending enough money.
“Our industry does not have enough work. Companies are having to make some hard decisions about staying in business in Saskatchewan and it is difficult for us to understand that the people of Saskatchewan cannot have their roads repaired because of an auction sale that took place in 1984.”
Morsky applauded volunteers at Val Marie, who patched potholes on Highway 4 last week, but said that’s only a Band-Aid solution.
Deputy premier Dwain Lingenfelter said he didn’t see anything wrong with taxpayers fixing their own roads. He said it is a common event in parts of the United States.
“This is what community building is all about,” he said.
