Highway 7 project will be a boon for Delisle: mayor

The provincial government’s plan to twin the 25-kilometre stretch of Highway 7 between Saskatoon and Delisle is expected to give the town of about 1,000 a significant economic boost, according to its mayor.

“I think that’s going to have a major impact — not immediately, but in the future, I think it’s going to have a major positive impact for the community,” Dave Anderchek said.

Besides making the major highway — which links Saskatoon to Calgary — safer, the multimilliondollar project will likely make land in Delisle more attractive to people and businesses looking to escape the city, Anderchek said.

“I think positive growth would be the main benefit,” he said, adding that he expects businesses to join others that have moved or announced plans to move into the town.

Announced by Premier Brad Wall and then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper in March 2015, the project is a joint venture between the provincial and federal governments, with the latter contributing half the cost, up to a maximum of $32 million.

Roadwork began last fall and will be completed in three phases — the stretch between Saskatoon and Vanscoy, the Vanscoy bypass and the final section between Vanscoy and Delisle — according to a spokesman for the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure.

Work on the highway to Delisle is slated to begin next year, while construction of the Vanscoy bypass is slated to get underway in 2018, the spokesman wrote.

Vanscoy, a village of some 400 people about halfway between Saskatoon and Delisle, will be bypassed by the twinned highway.

Robin Odnokon, Vanscoy’s mayor, said the project is “great news” for people who use the highway — including most of her constituents — but the high-speed bypass means it’s unlikely the village will experience a significant boom.