City hall to seek provincial funding to upgrade urban highways

City hall hopes that the provincial government will provide nearly $1 million in funding to help upgrade two major roads in Moose Jaw.

City administration plans to submit an expression of interest (EOI) application to the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure through its Urban Highway Connector Program (UHCP). The application will ask for money to upgrade the Manitoba Street Expressway from Corstorphine Avenue to 11th Avenue and Main Street North from Highway 2 to the Canadian Tire access point. The City of Moose Jaw’s engineering department chose these locations after determining they had the heaviest traffic flows.

The EOI stipulates that the total cost for each project must be less than $500,000 and must be completed by 2021. During its July 13 regular meeting, city council unanimously approved a motion to receive and file city administration’s report about the EOI and funding under this program. City administration will return to council in the fall with a budget for the two proposed projects.

The Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure introduced the UHCP in 2008 to “promote the safe and efficient movement of people and goods through an urban municipality while providing a transparent and consistent framework that supports the equitable management of urban connectors,” according to the report.

City administration was unsure if it needed council to provide an approved motion for this issue since the instructions from the ministry were unclear, city manager Jim Puffalt said. However, city administration knew that council wanted to approve all capital projects, so it brought forward this report since the application was due July 15.

“This program has been woefully underfunded ever since it was signed (in 2015 between the province and municipality),” he stated.

If city hall can get the projects in a queue, he continued, then there is the opportunity to obtain more funding than the maximum limit. There are already several commitments within the UHCP agreement that talk about bringing roads up to acceptable standards. The cost of those projects exceeds the $500,000 limit, so city administration will continue to press for those programs.

“I argued (years ago) against joining this program for those very reasons. We took on the responsibility of provincial roadways and bridges. Now we hear it is dramatically underfunded … ,” said Coun. Brian Swanson. “We bought into a program where the province was very willing to dump this on municipalities.”

Other possible locations that the UHCP could cover in the future include the north service road, various sections of Highway 2, Bushell Park access, the intersection of Highway 363 and Ninth Avenue Southwest, and Highway 2 over the Moose Jaw River.