By Sarah Rolles

NDP and Sask. Party discuss fall sitting and second bridge

Dec 14, 2012 | 5:57 AM

The fall sitting of the Saskatchewan Legislature ended last week with new liquor rules and labour changes but still no promise of a second bridge for Prince Albert.

Saskatchewan NDP interim leader John Nilson said he believes the bridge should be made a priority.

“What we do know is it is absolutely crucial for the economy of Prince Albert and also northern Saskatchewan and to have a bridge that may or may not be capable of taking the loads is a real difficulty,” he said.

“And you also a need a new bridge so that there is an alternate route if something happens on the other bridge.”

Nilson said that despite their efforts to raise issues on the bridge during the fall session there is yet to be any new announcements.

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“We would ask the members the five MLA’s that are around Prince Albert when are you going to get up and speak about the bridge and they seem to avoid that issue like the plague,” he said.

Prince Albert Carlton MLA, Darryl Hickie said they are waiting for the second bridge report to be finalized before they will comment on it.

“We have a group of experts that we have engaged with to do the consultation with the surrounding RM’s in Prince Albert and we were anticipating a report to come out sometime before Christmas,” he said.

“But when the interim report was released the stake holders, one of which was the city of Prince Albert, asked for it to be held back and to have a more inclusive report and we understand the city wants to look at things like dangerous goods that travel through Prince Albert.”

Hickie said the report might be out sometime in January.

“We are just going to wait and see what happens. I know with the city’s new request to have the dangerous goods aspect included…I am not sure if they have to go back and do more thorough research on that subject,” he said.

“We have to wait for the consultants to give us the actual report and agree to its actual contents,” Hickie said.

Nilson said he thinks the region’s Sask. MLA’s should be telling the Premier and the Finance Minister that the bridge should be the number one priority in the highways and transportation budget.

“If that bridge goes down it affects clearly what happens in Prince Albert, but it also affects the transportation of all of the goods both north and south for all the economic activity that’s north. They can go over to some of the other bridges but the best route is going through Prince Albert,” he said.

Another issue Nilson brought up was the lack of representation Prince Albert has in the provincial cabinet.

“What I know from 12 years around a cabinet table is that issues can be raised at a caucus table, but it’s around a cabinet table where the decisions are actually made.”

“If you don’t have a representative from your part of the province around the cabinet table sometimes things get overlooked,” he said.

Hickie disagrees saying it is not as big of deal as everyone is lead to believe.

“We have very strong women and men who are capable and willing to jump in to different roles at any time the Premier so chooses, we have a great communication with our colleagues” he said.

“I know that Victoria Jurgens (MLA for Prince Albert Northcote)… and I are sitting close to each other in the house and we talk on a daily basis about the issues in Prince Albert and we also have the ear of every cabinet minister and the Premier, so we have a very open caucus, great dialogue on a daily basis when we are in session and when we aren’t in session we have the availability of speaking with chiefs of staff and ministers if issues do come up.”

With the study expected to be made public in the New Year the bridge issue will likely see more debate in the spring sitting of the legislature, which starts in March.

srolles@panow.com

Twitter: @sarahlynnrolles