Northern Leaders, Ministers Discuss Key Issues
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 12:42
A one-day meeting between northern Saskatchewan leaders and provincial cabinet ministers is now in the books.
Yesterday, four members of cabinet took turns addressing delegates from the New North municipalities group.
Some of the topics up for discussion included highways, wastewater projects and social programming.
Donald Laprise of Garson Lake was one of the northern leaders to make the trip.
Although pleased by the ministers’ attendance, Laprise says he hopes the road link to his community gets some attention soon, noting that the road was only done “halfways” and no maintenance has been done since.
“I would like to see that road finished,” he says.
Meantime, Highways Minister Jim Reiter says he knows there are many calls for better roads in Saskatchewan.
Reiter notes that his ministry hasn’t given up constructing a road link from the province’s northwest to Fort McMurray, Alberta, and ministry officials are communicating with their counterparts on the other side of the border.
“Access is a big issue for every community. They’d obviously like to see that (link) — it would be good for cross-border access, and I know they’d be happy to see it,” he says.
Reiter adds that his office has been busy with finalizing the provincial budget lately, but he will continue to check in and see where the file goes.