(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Glenn Hicks

another crossing

NDP election call for second bridge in P.A.

Nov 1, 2019 | 12:17 PM

The opposition New Democrats will be beating the drum even louder for a second bridge in Prince Albert as we head into an election next November.

Since her narrow win in 2016, Prince Albert Northcote MLA Nicole Rancourt has been taking petitions on the matter to the legislature on a regular basis and did so again Thursday.

“A second bridge will definitely be a platform for us going into the election,” she told paNOW on the opening day of the NDP’s provincial convention in P.A. “We know the importance of having that second crossing, and residents are always coming up to me and talking about how they want to see action on this front.”

Rancourt said the need for a new structure over the river had been an issue for many years. As the existing bridge was the only one linking the north and south of the province, she said it was vital to have another to ensure continued access, not just for industry, the economy and tourism. She said she was particularly passionate about the community safety aspect.

“We talk about not having trucks going through urban centres — that’s why the government spent billions of dollars on the Regina bypass – so we’ve always proposed a second crossing with hopefully a route that would go around P.A. so we wouldn’t have a potential disaster happening in the city,” she said.

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Prince Albert Carlton MLA Joe Hargrave has previously stated the province, while facing a deficit and reduced revenues, was still committed to shared funding for a new bridge under a public-private-partnership or P3 model. That could involve the city having to fork out a third of the estimated $150 million cost. The NDP is against that approach insisting Prince Albert should not be on the hook for any portion of the cost.

Based on this funding model, the City of Prince Albert has looked at the potential for raising its share of the cost via the tolling of the existing Diefenbaker Bridge.

A report suggested as much as $4.5 million could be raised each year through a tolling system.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow