Better northern highways could boost everything from forestry to tourism. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Doug Lett

Northern Corrider MOU

MOU could help grow northern route

Apr 25, 2023 | 8:00 AM

On April 11 the three prairie provinces announced an MOU (memorandum of understanding) to advance economic corriders – including the Gateway Keewatin Corrider that links northwest Manitoba and northeast Saskatchewan.

The corridor is part of the only northern highway system linking Alberta east to the Port of Churchill in Manitoba, and supporters believe improving the route could be an important economic engine.

“The northern corridor – it’s a sleeping giant, we need that road,” said Leonard Gluska, who is president of Gateway Keewatin, which was formed years ago to lobby for improved northern highways. “We refer to it as an economic deficit, both for industry, and for tourism.”

He’s not alone. Nipawin’s mayor believes an improved highway system could lead to economic growth for the whole region.

Rennie Harper said the potential of a better corridor has been discussed for years and she is hopeful the MOU will help.

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“I believe the MOU kind of strengthens that and actually puts a little bit of emphasis on the fact that both the Province of Manitoba and the Department of Highways in Saskatchewan are going to work together to see how that can happen,” she said.

A 2016 study backs up the route’s potential. Done by Praxis Consulting, it found a better highway system could be used by industries from agriculture and tourism to mining and forestry along with creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs.

The study estimated that over a 20-year span, having the corridor fully developed for heavy traffic could add $12 billion in economic activity to the country’s GDP, along with an additional $862 million in tax revenue for Saskatchewan, and $68 million for Manitoba.

The port of Churchill in northern Manitoba is also part of the picture.

.”We’re closer to tidewater, as a farm area than anybody else in Canada, except maybe Quebec, (and) Ontario that are near the Great Lakes,” Gluska said. “So we’re in a perfect position but we can’t utilize it.”

Last year the federal and provincial governments spent more than $20 million upgrading 38 kilometers of highway 55 east towards the Manitoba border. But there is more to be done, on both sides of the border.

Saskatchewan’s Highways Minister Jeremy Cockrill said the MOU should help.

“And so what this MOU does, it really, I think helps focus our three provinces on looking at those corridors that cross provincial borders, and then figuring out how we can coordinate investment to make sure that we’re maximizing economic opportunity in all areas of our provinces,” he said.

Including, he said, the possibility of using the Port of Churchill to ship more prairie products to world markets.

“So certainly part of this discussion around the MOU on economic corriders is to look at other port options on Hudson Bay,” Cockrill said. “Whether that’s ag (agriculture) products, or potash, or other raw materials or energy products.”

Cockrill added the MOU also touches on linking northeast Alberta with northwest Saskatchewan – linking La Loche with Fort McMurray.

“This year, we’re going to be finishing the Saskatchewan side of Highway 956 known as the Garson Lake Road. We think there’s incredible opportunity in that part of the province when we talk about uranium, and other rare minerals,” he said.

On the Alberta side, there is only a winter road, although Saskatchewan has been asking Alberta to upgrade it to an all weather road.

However, Cockrill said there is no definite timeline to finishing improving Highway 55 to the Manitoba border.

“It’s something that we’re committed to looking at in terms of a timeframe. We don’t have a timeframe commitment yet, to those improvements,” he said.

Still, Mayor Harper said anything that will push the process along is valuable.

“I recall working in a business in White Fox, a long time ago now. And even then there was a push to have a roadway to The Pas (Manitoba) and beyond to the East. It’s moved slowly, but it has moved, and there seems to be some potential here,” she said.

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doug.lett@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @DougLettSK