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By Josh Hall | @Vancan19, and Sheldon Spackman

national corridors still a priority, feds say

Alberta’s Minister Dreeshen meets with transportation counterparts in Montreal

Feb 28, 2024 | 5:07 PM

Alberta’s Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors says a trip to Montreal last week allowed for a chance to discuss with provincial, territorial and federal counterparts, concerns about the National Trade Corridors Fund (NTCF).

This comes after comments from federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, who, according to other reports, told a crowd in Montreal earlier this month that, “our government has made the decision to stop investing in new road infrastructure.”

Guilbeault later walked back his comments, Dreeshen says, referring to the federal minister’s follow-up remark that he should have been more specific.

Guilbeault’s office tells rdnewsNOW the comments were taken out of context, and were specifically about the Third Link project in Quebec City.

“When you look at the National Trade Corridors Fund, its whole purpose is for large nation-building projects, and how the provincial and federal governments can work together. From an Alberta standpoint, we’re the only province to receive zero,” Dreeshen says, explaining that Alberta has applied for funding for nine projects without success.

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In at least one case, he says, Alberta applied for funding two years ago but has never received any response.

The officer for federal Minister of Transport, Pablo Rodriguez, tells rdnewsNOW that Alberta has had 12 projects funded by the NTCF.

“Minister Rodriguez did indicate that in the upcoming federal budget, that hopefully we would see something. But it was pretty cold comfort to Alberta, as well as to other provinces, to hear that the National Trade Corridors Fund may be at risk, and that large projects would not be funded by the federal government anymore.”

“Minister Guilbeault’s comments signal no change in the federal government’s infrastructure funding policy,” says Kaitlin Power, press secretary at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.

“We will continue to work with our provincial and municipal partners to build up communities across the country on a wide range of transportation options. Provinces and cities are, in fact, primarily responsible for road and highway infrastructure, with few exceptions.”

Dreeshen says the top two projects Alberta is seeking funding for involve Highway 3 in southern Alberta, effectively connecting B.C. to Saskatchewan, as well as the Highway 40X ring road connector project near Grande Prairie, which would divert significant truck traffic from going through the city.

“We take in about $13 billion of non-renewable resource revenue, yet we hand out through equalization about $26 billion,” says Dreeshen. “So to not see funds coming back to Alberta even though we over-contribute to the rest of the country is again a big frustration and something I raised at the meetings.”

Dreeshen noted Alberta has a significant amount of infrastructure — 64,000 lane kilometres and 5,000 bridges — it has responsibility for, and funding for which will be announced in the upcoming provincial budget.

Dreeshen met with Rodriguez recently when he and others, including Premier Danielle Smith, opened up an office for Alberta in Ottawa. He says the meeting was collegial, but the clarity he was seeking on certain projects wasn’t realized.

“We’re not just waiting on the federal government to show leadership. We’ve already signed a memorandum of understanding with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to work on how we can harmonize our rules and regulations crossing provincial boundaries, how we could actually allow for nation-building projects, whether it’s utility lines or transmission lines coming from Manitoba west, or pipelines or railways or new roadways going from Alberta east,” he says.

“We want to try to tear down those barriers so that we actually can be a country that has nation-building projects again. The federal-provincial-territorial meeting was great, and I had a really good conversation with the Northwest Territories’ deputy premier about that same kind of agreement with Alberta and the Northwest Territories and getting access to the Arctic Ocean. There is a lot of economic corridor work and it would be nice if the federal government would work with us.”

Alberta’s minister believes, “Premier Smith said it best when she said ‘We wish the federal government would be a strategic partner versus a delusional adversary.’ I think that’s still our hope, but actions obviously speak louder than words.”

Dreeshen et al. also met with Rodriguez in Montreal as well.

“Minister Rodriguez acknowledged the need for more infrastructure investments, and discussed the importance of the National Trade Corridors Fund, which helps fund projects in Canada that include work to airports, ports, railways, transportation facilities, and access roads,” Laura Scaffidi, press secretary, says in a statement.

“Our government will work with all provinces and territories to build resilient infrastructure and supply chains across the country, so Canadians can access the goods they need, when they need them, at affordable prices.”

Scaffidi notes that in 2021, the NTCF was provided an additional $1.9 billion over four years, increasing its overall envelope to $4.2 billion. Budget 2022 added another $450 million over five years

Alberta’s 2024 budget is set to be unveiled Feb. 29.

READ MORE

• Highway twinning to finish this year, work on Highway 40X continues says Minister Dreeshen
• County of Grande Prairie seeking to add Highway 40X as an economic stimulus project

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