Download “Building Saskatchewan’s Western Trade Corridor” (word document)

Representatives of the City of Swift Current met with Premier Brad Wall June 13 to discuss the possibility of the creation of a trade corridor.

“We did discuss, among other things, the trade corridor and the potential of Highway 4 to be upgraded to facilitate that corridor,” said Ryan Plewis, city councillor.

“It was a good meeting. We provided him with a copy of the report that Community Futures was the point on, and basically what we talked about was the projected traffic that might be coming up and down that highway if a number of things change.”

Plewis indicated the factors would include changes in border services: Changing the port of entry south of Cadillac to 24-hour service, and infrastructure upgrades to that area.

Repairing the 83-kilometre stretch of highway between the U.S. border and Cadillac to support commercial traffic is estimated to cost approximately $80 million.

“One of the things that we both identified was the safety issue with that highway.It’s not in good shape at all and there is an economy element to this as well,” Plewis said.

“There’s a significant amount of trade that goes south across our border, and back-and-forth with trucking every year, as well there’s a national park right alongside of that highway.”

Fertilizers, oil seeds, and live animals account for $416 million in trade between the province and the U.S. alone.

Saskatchewan’s tourism industry generated $102 million from American travellers in 2009.

“Having a trade corridor in southwest Saskatchewan would be a great thing for the entire region and the entire province,” said Plewis.

“We very much appreciate the investment that the provincial government has already made in infrastructure, and that we know the investment has increased significantly in the last little while. It’s not that we’re looking at this as merely an expense, but as an investment.”

Plewis planned to meet with David Anderson, Cypress Hills-Grasslands MP, to discuss a possible partnership with the federal government, in regards to the proposed trade corridor.

“They’ve done a lot of good work and we have port issues, not just in those areas that are joined up with the state of Montana, but also of course in the southeast with the portal with North Dakota,” said Wall.

“I think it’s going to be very interesting to see the federal response to the report, because of course there’s a couple of other crossings here where local individuals would also make the case that they’re area would be the right place for it.”

The premier noted the support south of the border— where an $8 million investment has been made at the port of Monchy/Morgan — and the increase in the Homeland Security presence in Malta.

“But of course the borders themselves are a federal responsibility, and the hours that they keep is a federal responsibility,” said Wall.

“What’s provincial though, admittedly, is the infrastructure piece, and whether it’s (Highway 4) or whether it’s in the Climax area. That is the provincial responsibility, and there’s no question that we have spent a lot of money on roads in our first three and a half years in government, but there are still lots of places where the roads are not in the shape we’d like them yet.”

He indicated if the federal government throws it’s support behind Highway 4 then it would make the case for increased focus by the province.

“We have a very large highway system: More roads per capita in Saskatchewan than anywhere else in the country, so we have a lot of areas to look after, but certainly expanded hours and commercial designation is going to make a stronger case for improving highways on either side of the border.”

John Parker, general manager of Community Futures Southwest, noted the importance of a partnership between all levels of government would be needed to support the proposed corridor.

“We’re trying to arrange meetings with the federal government — with David Anderson — to ensure they are aware of what the business case is bringing forward, and that we need the federal government to be cognizant of what’s happening with the border crossings and security issues that have been talked about at the federal level,” said Parker.

“At this point there’s certainly much awareness for the need of trade corridors and proper infrastructure throughout the province, and we’re seeing great movement by the department of highways to ensure that gets done. I think it’s a matter of how do we get it done, and if we all believe in it then we all need to move forward.

Saskatchewan top provincial politician knows the importance of free-flowing trade to the economy.

The U.S. remains an important trading partner with Saskatchewan, with the majority of the province’s exports travelling south of the border.

“Our numbers are about 60 per cent — the most recent numbers that the province has from a trade perspective — still a huge number,” said Premier Brad Wall while at the grand re-opening of the Great Plains College in Swift Current May 24.

“Anything over half is significant, but we’re actually the second-least dependent on the Americans for our exports of all the provinces. B.C. is the least, and we’re second least principally because of our trade with Asia in pulses, agriculture, and potash, but the American market is still the most important market, there’s no question.”

The premier had not yet seen the trade corridor business case facilitated by John Parker and Community Futures Southwest, but lent his support to increased port access.

“I think we’d like to see certainly more port access; there’s always the argument in the province of east versus west in terms of where there should be additional resources for access and for border crossings — at the very least, we need to be exploring improvement of access to determination of exactly where it can maybe be done later, but it would be nice to see a resolve on part of both national governments (Canada and the U.S.) for more access,” said Wall.

With only six months remaining in his first term as Premier, Wall blamed the previous government for the state of Saskatchewan’s highways.

“There is a huge infrastructure deficit we’ve inherited, the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) did a study before the last election and determined that we’ve inherited about a billion dollar infrastructure deficit in highways alone from the previous government,” he said.

“How we’ve dealt with that? Well we’ve been trying to do it year-by-year knowing that there’s always more potholes than pavement it seems, but we’ve increased the highways budget, for example by 55 per cent in our first four years versus the last four years of the previous administration.”

Wall noted partnership with the federal government on municipal infrastructure initiatives as another example of tackling the deficit.

“I think were making progress, but that’s not to say there’s not more work to be done, because there is. We have an infrastructure issue, and you can’t deal with a billion dollar deficit on highways alone overnight, but I think we’re slowly making progress; we’re catching up,” he said.

Wall recognized the City of Swift Current’s resolution to support a 24-hour port on Highway 4.

“As a citizen of Swift Current — never mind my other job — obviously we’d like that west side access improved,” said Wall. “From an industry standpoint, it’s even more important.”

Representatives from Swift Current and southwest Saskatchewan were joined by representatives from Colorado, Montana, North Dakota and Texas, including several members of the US-based Ports to Prairies Alliance, for the timely release of Community Futures Southwest’s Highway #4 “Corridor for Competitiveness Business Case”.

Four years of lobbying and planning have culminated in the Business Case that was presented by Aaron Murray of Derek Murray Consulting & Associates to an attentive gathering of familiar faces, many of whom have diligently supported the Highway #4 trade corridor project since its conception.

“This was the final conclusion point of our project that we worked on for four years,” explained John Parker, general manager of Community Futures Southwest during the reports unveiling on May 10. “What we found was missing was we did not have the business case that we could make a presentation to the province. We needed to bring all of the things that were done: the transportation study that was completed in 2008, the economic impact study done by the Montana Transportation, they’re both 250-270 page reports, and tourism reports and tourism concerns.”

The impetus for the project is the dilapidated condition of Highway #4 (referenced as a “goat trail” by Parker) from the Canada/US border north, and the profound limitations that the Corridor for Competitiveness group and its partners feel the neglected highway places on Saskatchewan’s future trucking exports, which account for over 70 per cent of the province’s revenue.

The Business Case for the Highway #4 Corridor for Competitiveness becomes even more justifiable in view of a proposed extension to the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway on the US side that is scheduled to run west from Williston, North Dakota, to the Camino Real route in Montana – and parallel to the TransCanada Highway – that will potentially “T” south from Saskatchewan’s Highway #4 to Billings Montana, linking cities like Lloydminster and Saskatoon to a direct trade corridor with Texas and even Mexico and helping to grow an industry that clocked over $8 billion in exports last year.

“From our side,” said Parker, “we’re saying our figures show that if we do this, then we will fill that [transportation] gap that’s been shown on the map, that’s really a big gap, and that we have a straight corridor up and down on #4 right through to Texas, so we believe that it’s really important to put the infrastructure in place, that businesses in the Southwest, businesses in our province and our whole economy can grow, if we put proper infrastructure in place.”

Regina’s multi-phase Global Transportation Hub, started in 2009 and offering high-speed twinned by-passes around Regina that connect the TransCanada and provincial Highway #11 (the major routes east, west and north of Regina), provides a compelling incentive to supporters of the Highway #4 trade corridor to ensure that highway infrastructure throughout the southwest portion of the province adequately supports the increased trucking and rail traffic facilitated by the GTH.

However, the Saskatchewan Government has scheduled no highway maintenance or infrastructure enhancement anywhere in the vicinity of Highway #4 and the US border in its map of projections for road construction into 2014, leaving supporters of the Corridor for Competitiveness questioning whether Regina’s “Global Transportation Hub” is destined to become a bottleneck rather than a truly international transportation interchange.

“The City of Swift Current is solidly behind us and certainly we’ve received favourable support verbally from the City of Saskatoon, saying we think this is a good idea, we’ll look at where we can fit in on it. A lot of players see benefit, all the way up to Meadow Lake, our uranium finds and other resources.”

The original core of about 30 interested parties, including RMs, organizations, businesses and communities, has grown to over 85 partners, many of whom attended the presentation, including PhillCo Economic Growth Council (Phillips County and Malta Montana); Cal Klewin, Executive Director, Theodore Roosevelt Expressway, Williston ND; and executives of the Ports to Plains Alliance including Michael Reeves, President, and Joe Kiely, Vice President.

In the US, the Ports to Plains Alliance already counts Alberta as one of their partners, so it would seem that the real issue regarding the government of Saskatchewan’s reticence about Highway #4 is not one of viability, but rather one of priority.

The attendees were:

• History Montana
• Philco Economical Development Co. (United States)
• Port to Plains Representation
• Enterprise Southwest Enterprise
• Tourism Swift Current Representation
• Chair for Community Futures Southwest
• Representation from the City of Swift Current
• Representation from the Village of Ponteix
• Representation from Theodore Roosevelt Expressway Assoc.
• President of Highway 2 Assoc. Havre, MT
• Representation from the Northern Ag Service in Malta

The speakers were:

• Power Point from Port to Plains with Michael Reeves (President); Joe Kiely (VP of Operations)
• Power Point with Murray and Associates; The Business Case – Aaron Murray

SW SK Trade Corridor Assessment Report May 16 2011  This is the final draft of the business case presented at the May 10, 2011 meeting. It was later presented at the Rural Highway Strategy Meeting held in Regina on Friday May 20, 2011.

Watch John H. Parker (General Manager of Community Futures Southwest) in an interview with Southwest TV News, on the Meeting with the US and Canadian Rep’s held on May 10, 2011

Download powerpoint presentation here.

John Parker - General Manager for Community Futures Southwest

John Parker attended the first annual 49 x 110 Spring Conference & AGM hosted by Tourism Swift Current on April 28, 2011, and spoke on the Corridor for Competitiveness Project.

Highway 4 south of Rosetown skirts some of the most spectacular landscapes in Canada.

It crosses Saskatchewan Landing, passes within spitting distance of the Cypress Hills Provincial Park and the historic Fort Walsh, and skirts the western rim of the breathtaking Grasslands National Park of Canada.

Continue in the same direction past the American frontier and the view to the west is of the Rocky Mountain foothills.

By the end of a day’s drive, one can find oneself in the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. If the name sounds familiar, it is because that’s where Lt.-Col. George Armstrong Custer made his last, futile stand.

North of Rosetown, Highway 4 serves as a gateway to some of the most important battles of the Northwest Resistance, passes through some of the best hunting lands in the world, and ultimately leads to what are reputed to be among the best fishing lakes in Canada.

On the American side of the border, the richness of this route is well known. Even in late summer, the parking lot below the monument to the First Nations and cavalry casualties of Lt.-Col. Custer’s misadventure is packed from early morning to late in the day.

And during the right seasons, the roads are crowded with hunters.

On the Canadian side, however – and particularly between Cadillac and the border crossing at Monchy – very brave, very well-prepared or very foolish join the local traffic along a nasty stretch of Highway 4 that John Parker described to Saskatoon’s City Council this week as a “goat trail.”

With all due respect to Mr. Parker, the general manager of Community Futures Southwest, his description is unkind to goat trails.

This section of Highway 4 has long been the forgotten gateway to Saskatchewan. In spite of the wise decision of previous federal governments to declare the natural grassland along the border as a national park, the road leading to the western side of this unique landscape has been long neglected. So much so there was a time when locals took up spades and tar to try their best to fix the road, even without the help of the province.

Mr. Parker was in Saskatoon to convince the government of Saskatchewan’s largest city about the potential to create an economic, cultural and tourism corridor that would stretch from the northern part of the province all the way to Texas.

To its credit, Saskatoon council has asked its administration to study the proposal as part of an overall goal of strengthening this city’s role as a transportation hub. Ultimately, however, it will require the provincial government to take interest in this project.

Since Saskatchewan’s fortunes turned in the last half of the past decade, both the former NDP government and the current administration have invested increasingly heavily in the province’s roadways.

However, according to Mr. Parker, the critical part of Highway 4 that should act as a welcome mat to the province so far isn’t on the agenda. That is in part because the road doesn’t now carry enough traffic to warrant the investment.

This is a case, Mr. Parker told council, of: “If you build it, they will come.”

It certainly serves as a massive disincentive to Saskatchewan’s tourism aspirations when basic infrastructure – particularly those roads that cross the province’s borders, are almost impassable.

Saskatchewan is not only rich in oil, uranium, potash, gold, coal, diamonds, timber, food and gas. It is also among the richest territories in Canada in terms of its historic and recreational potential. And much of that richness is left untapped because the province has never fully stepped up to the challenge.

One hopes that the provincial government expands its vision to include the road less travelled. And one hopes Saskatoon plays enough of a role in this promotion that it can use this corridor to exploit its own growing tourism potential.