An improved roadmap of northern Alberta includes better emergency exits during wildfires, UCP says

A wildfire burns in northern Alberta on July 10, 2024. (Source: Alberta Wildfire)

Improved economic corridors and emergency routes will eventually remap the way drivers navigate the north, the legislature heard during a week that saw UCP faithful emphasize spending beyond Alberta’s major centres.

Andrew Boitchenko, the member for Drayton Valley-Devon, highlighted $311 million for emergency routes in Alberta. He also spoke of further spending on a suite of northern highway projects as supports for the region’s resource-rich economy among communities that wildfires often put at risk.

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“Moving people safely in an emergency is a key priority for the Alberta government, especially in north Alberta where wildfires pose a serious threat,” Boitchenko told the legislature.

About 7,200 residents of Drayton Valley and its surrounding area faced evacuation in May 2023, and four homes were lost to wildfire. The town is about 135 km west of Edmonton in Boitchenko’s riding.

Devin Dreeshen, the minister of transportation and economic corridors, said his ministry is committed to $1.25 billion for the north, “and we’ll continue to get those projects built.”

Among the spending he itemized were

• $87 million for a bridge across Peace River towards La Crête in the Peace River riding
• $69 million for Highway 40 between Hinton and Grand Cache in the West Yellowhead riding on the west side of northcentral Alberta
• $7 million for design work of the La Loche connector, a project that will help join the Saskatchewan village to Fort McMurray.

Also in the discussion were Highway 686 improvements between Peerless Lake and Fort McMurray, part of a much larger east-west connector linking Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie.

“Highway 686 will be an incredible project when it gets built, finally, for communities,” said Dreeshen. “It’s going to be a 215-kilometre project that’s going to go through our beautiful boreal forest.”

The route will give Fort McMurray residents and residents of “every community along the way” secondary exit routes during wildfires, Dreeshen said. It will also mean that the group of northerners will “just be able to get to where they’re going safely.”

Some of the Highway 686 work is in Lesser Slave Lake, whose MLA has accused the UCP of favouring urban centres over smaller ones in the 2025 budget. Scott Sinclair, who now sits as an Independent, would not commit to supporting the budget tabled Feb. 27 and ended up losing his caucus membership.

“I’m furious at the amount of money being funneled into Edmonton and Calgary (as usual) while Northern Alberta and our riding are largely ignored,” Sinclair posted on social media March 1. “The continuous flow of our GDP to urban centers while rural Alberta— the backbone of this province— gets left behind is appalling.”

Several of Sinclair’s complaints were about health care funding, like a need for a helipad in High Prairie. But funding is also missing for the north-south route Highway 88, Sinclair posted. Also known as the Bicentennial Highway, it runs about 430 km north from the town of Slave Lake in his riding to just past Fort Vermillion in the Peace River riding.

However, budget 2025 does propose funding for paving and upgrading Highway 686 near Red Earth Creek and Peerless Trout First Nation in Lesser Slave Lake. That project involves cooperation with First Nations that put “essentially a line on the map” for the highway, Dreeshen said.

“I just wanted to thank the chiefs for their work, going out into their communities, consulting and engaging with them to make sure that when we build this road, we will build it right,” said Dreeshen.

By George Lee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Macleod Gazette