Minister of Infrastruc-ture and Transportation Steve Ashton was in Snow Lake recently to make an announcement that will have far-reaching effects for the town’s economy and the fortunes of companies doing business in or near the community.
Ashton announced that in addition to the $12 million the provincial government is spending on highways in the immediate area this current year, another $50 million will go toward roads in the general vicinity over the next five years.
Noting that his government has made significant investments in northern Manitoba as part of its commitment to improving infrastructure, Ashton said his department’s budget has increased fivefold since the NDP took office in 1999.
He said the government will likely increase the capital budget even more over the next period of time.
“I always like to quote that great Manitoban Randy Bachman... if you think there has been a lot of highways work thus far... you ain’t seen nothing yet,” Ashton lightheartedly said. “We are now talking major construction projects that in many cases are upgrading highways that haven’t seen significant work since the 1960s and ’70s. We had roads back then that weren’t engineered by any standard that you would recognize today.”
More traffic
Ashton pointed to the traffic resulting from the Lalor mine and acknowledged the town council’s leadership in identifying it. He also acknowledged the issues surrounding some of the accesses onto Provincial Road 392.
“It’s very clear that we have the need and the opportunity for a significant upgrade for both PR 392 and Highway 39,” said Ashton. “That has already started and what I wanted to announce, actually, today is in addition to the $12 million worth of work, this year alone, on PR 392 and starting on the ‘W’ curves [about 12 km east of the PR 392/Highway 39 junction], we will be investing $50 million on PR 392 and Highway 39 over the next five years.
“Essentially, in addition to the work on intersections, which will be the priority on PR 392, we will, over the next five years, be reconstructing and resurfacing all the way to the junction on PR 392 and then we will be going from the ‘W’ curves east of the junction [on Highway 39] all the way to Highway 10. This is in our capital program. It’s not just a promise, this is something we are programming.”
Ashton said the decision on the work was made earlier in the year but that his trip to Snow Lake was the first time it was made public. He said he wanted to attend the community personally in order to make the commitment known.
He also said it afforded him the chance to recognize the hard work of MLA Clarence Pettersen, town council and the entire community of Snow Lake for keeping the issue at the forefront.
“The only thing I will apologize for is... construction delays,” said Ashton, who was joined by Pettersen for the announcement.
“There are going to be a lot of them coming up, and believe it or not, a lot of people don’t like those delays,” Ashton added in jest.
Mayor Clarence Fisher replied that if it meant construction was taking place, he’d gladly take the delays that go with it.
Fisher also sought clarification on what was meant by “work on intersections,” asking if it meant turning lanes would be put in at cottage subdivisions.
Ashton replied that intersections would be prioritized and traffic flows would be studied. Current design standards would be taken into account and all of it will be factored into the work before any resurfacing takes place.
Pettersen thanked the minister for close to $100 million being spent in his constituency alone in the coming years.
“I have told a lot of people that I could guarantee them one thing and that was that I wasn’t going to become minister of highways and forget about northern Manitoba,” Ashton said in reply, “and we as a government weren’t going to have a major reinvestment in Manitoba and forget about northern Manitoba.”
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