CITY OF COLD LAKE RELEASE:
The City of Cold Lake is disappointed that the Government of Alberta’s three-year capital plan contains no funding earmarked to start improvements on Highway 28, meaning that the earliest that substantial improvements could be realized will now be stretched to 2028.
“We know a commitment was made to study what upgrades are needed for Highway 28 in early 2023, but there does not seem to be any sense of urgency for a highway that has been in obvious need of upgrades for well over a decade,” Mayor Craig Copeland said. “The state of the highway has slipped beyond being a nuisance or an eyesore. Highway 28 is an embarrassment and becoming a danger. Highway 28 connects the Cold Lake Oilsands to our large urban centres. This is the route workers must travel to access one of the most lucrative regions for our province. This budget signals that the long-standing trend of taking revenues from our region while seeing little to no return investment will continue.”
The City of Cold Lake and the surrounding region has been preparing for increased growth and activity as work to implement the federal government’s Future Fighter Capabilities Program is preparing to begin. The work will see over $1 billion in federal investment, hundreds of additional construction jobs in the area for years, an increase in the personnel stationed at 4 Wing Cold Lake, and an increase in economic activity needed to support the project and the people it will bring.
Copeland noted that not only was there no announcement for Highway 28, but that investments in the northeast, at the end of Highway 28, continues to lag. Schools and other community infrastructure in Cold Lake that have been deemed priority have also seem to been left off the Government of Alberta’s current and future capital projections.
“There is always billions upon billions for the big cities, but when the time comes to travel to northeastern Alberta on Highway 28 – if you take a job in the Cold Lake Oilsands – you are stuck on a goat path that any driver would realize has needed upgrades for years,” Copeland said. “I don’t think I’m alone when I say that we were expecting a greater commitment to the industry and municipalities that helped build so much of this province, and we were hoping that a small portion of the revenue that comes from our corner of the province might be returned in the form of basic infrastructure. We were sorely disappointed.”
