7 January 2009
Price Tag of Shipping Facililty Could Rise
Regina Saskatchewan - A major shipping facility planned
for west of Regina is getting bigger - and that could mean the cost to the public is likely to expand as well, the provincial
government says.
The Canadian Pacific Railway "intermodal" facility that was announced in December 2007 was originally pegged as a
$93-million project.
The federal government said it would contribute about $27 million.
The province said this week it decided some time ago to match the federal government's money - although it didn't announce it
publicly.
That price tag could easily expand with the project, Saskatchewan Highways and Infrastructure Minister Wayne Elhard said Tuesday.
For instance, Elhard said, when a major grocery chain announced it would build a huge new warehouse in the area, the province learned
that would add 1,400 semi-loads of traffic every week.
"That is going to put a tremendous burden on our existing infrastructure or at least the infrastructure that we had
anticipated," he said. "That necessitated a review and a reconsideration of what necessarily would support that additional
traffic."
Further details on what Elhard is now calling a "global transportation hub" will be announced next week.
Any money the province invests will be returned many times in increased exports of Saskatchewan goods, he said.
"You know, if you have to spend $50 million, as an example, to generate half a billion dollars worth of added economic
initiatives and growth, that sounds to me like a pretty good investment," he said.
The update on the project came the same day the NDP Opposition put out a news release questioning where the project was at.
"Has the focus of the provincial government's investment changed and if so, I think the people of Saskatchewan need to
know," NDP MLA Deb Higgins said. "What's the value of the investment that they're looking at
making?"
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