Alberta Highway Maintenance
42% of our highways are noted to be in poor or fair condition. Why?
MLA Kyle Kasawski’s Speech in the Legislature - November 18, 2024
M6. Mr. Dach moved that an order of the Assembly do issue for a return showing a list of all amendments made during the period from March 31, 2019, to March 31, 2024, to provincial highways maintenance contracts in respect of maintenance service levels. Other members chose to rise, to debate the motion. (Read all of them starting on page 23 of this PDF)
MLA Kasawski: “When I looked at the website for Strathcona county, there are 1,300 kilometres of roads, rural roads, and ditches in Strathcona county, and there are 418 kilometres in Sherwood Park, my riding. So it’s really important to ensure safe and quality transportation.
One thing that is noticeable to people of Sherwood Park is that when you leave Sherwood Park and you move onto a provincial highway, the roads get noticeably worse, so we need to pay attention to that.
We need the minister, when he’s looking at our highways that are in Sherwood Park, in Strathcona county, like Anthony Henday, highway 16 or Yellowhead Trail, highway 21, highway 14, highway 824, highway 830, highway 630 – we need him to take some arguments to Treasury Board on the value of investment.
Some research and just some quick looking at it looks like if we can just increase 10 per cent of our spend on maintenance infrastructure, we’ll increase our GDP for the whole province by 4 per cent. Bring those numbers in an argument to Treasury Board, Minister, so that we in Strathcona county and Sherwood Park and other places across the province can count on high-quality highways.
Right now, as it was brought up, we are trying to find out why, when we drive and look, we find out that 42 per cent of our highways are in poor or very poor condition. What is going on in this province? We’re looking for some transparency. What is going on in this province that 42 per cent of our highways are in poor or very poor condition?
Good highways equal higher productivity. When I think back to some conversations I’ve had with constituents, in the election I had one person that just grilled me, and I, at the end, had to say: what is your background? They were asking about our investment. They were going to vote based on the platforms of investment from the two different parties, and they were hyperfocused on investment in education and investment in infrastructure. They viewed that as a primary role for government because investment in highways, just like investment in education, translates into economic productivity.
Minister, please bring this investment mindset to Treasury Board when you go. We’re trying to get some transparency on what is going on in this province and why the investments are not being made. We don’t need to spend more money on pet projects. I think we’ve had enough discussion in this House about Turkish Tylenol, about pipelines to nowhere, about research into chemtrails.
What we need is focus on investment in this province, and we’re asking the government to bring an investment mindset forward as we prepare for this budgetary cycle. The question that the member asked is a reasonable question so that we can understand why the investments aren’t being made, and if they are, let’s be transparent about it.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.”
Following the comments of MLA Kasawski and others, members present in the Assembly voted on the motion.
[The voice vote indicated that Motion for a Return 6 lost]
[Several members rose calling for a division. The division bell was rung at 4:49 p.m.]
Summary: The UCP government voted against showing a list of all amendments made during the period from March 31, 2019, to March 31, 2024, to provincial highways maintenance contracts in respect of maintenance service levels.
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