OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Premier Scott Moe drives a tractor-trailer on the Regina Bypass Monday, one day before it officially opens to public traffic. While the Saskatchewan Party says the bypass will save lives, the Opposition NDP describe it as a flawed, expensive project.
It’s official — love it or hate it, the Regina Bypass is done and will be fully open for traffic on Tuesday.
The provincial government touted the completion at a wintry ceremony Monday morning attended by Premier Scott Moe as well as a mother who lost her son in a crash on the Trans-canada Highway prior to construction of the bypass.
“Today is a glorious day,” Moe told reporters. “We are finishing the largest infrastructure project ... in the history of the province of Saskatchewan.” The government was also quick to point out it’s opening “on time and on budget” — with the budget increasing over time as the scope of the project changed.
The Opposition NDP wasn’t nearly so ebullient, with critic Cathy Sproule pointing out flaws hours later in the legislature.
“Remember Mr. Speaker farmers couldn’t get their equipment through to overpasses which sent dozens … into Balgonie, causing mayhem,” she added.
“How can the Sask. Party justify plowing ahead and forcing Saskatchewan people to pay $2 billion for nearly 60 kilometres of road?”
She later called the opening ceremony “a lot of fanfare for one of the most expensive pieces of roadwork on flat ground that this country’s ever seen.” Sproule took issue, in particular, with the money spent on the western portion of the bypass, “supporting a fallacy or a fantasy that there’d be a lot more traffic coming out of the GTH” or Global Transportation Hub.
But Highways Minister Greg Ottenbreit’s focus was on safer roadways. “We know that this project will save lives,” he said.
Wanda Campbell, who attended the ceremony, lost her 17-yearold son Lane in a crash on the Trans-canada Highway east before the bypass was built.
“On August 9, 2013, my life changed forever, and I became an advocate for road safety,” she said in a news release. “We can honour Lane’s memory if no other family has to live through the pain we’ve suffered.”
White City Fire Department Chief Randy Schulz also cited the safety factor since the first section of the bypass opened in 2017.
“Before the bypass I was on a first-name basis with the coroner’s office,” Schulz said. “Since the first phase of the bypass opened, we haven’t used our Jaws of Life.”
Sproule said no one is disputing that more traffic safety measures were needed, but she faulted the Sask. Party for handing the P3 contract to a “conglomerate from France” and for “grossly mishandling the land-buying process.”