Dear Editor:
Over the next three years, the Wall Government is set to pay out around a billion dollars on the Regina Bypass project alone, as is outlined in the 2015-16 Public Accounts, Volume 1. Much of the work associated with those payments will do little to truly improving public safety, which is the end goal of the Regina Bypass project. The key focus needs to be along Highway #1 East, where it is essential to get heavy trucks off of that stretch, and reduce the amount of traffic congestion to a minimum, so as to prevent needless tragedies as we’ve seen over the past number of years. Ironically, the overpasses currently under construction will do neither of these things, and are only costly band-aid diversion tactics, instead of proper, long term solutions.
With that said, when you are faced with a budget crisis such as the Wall Government is, and has been for some time now, would it not make sense to immediately halt all non-essential work on the Regina Bypass? This project has exploded in cost over the past decade, from “only” $63 Million in 2007 (Stantec Southeast Regina Bypass Detailed Functional Study) to over $2 Billion, and counting, as of 2017, when you factor in the questionable land acquisition costs. Mr. Wall can try to justify this explosion any way he wants, but at the end of the day, if the focus is truly on improving public safety, we need spend no more than is truly required, which is further supported by the 2007 Stantec Study. Everything that has developed since that time has been more focused around padding the pocketbooks of Sask Party friends and donors than anything else. If anyone is really wondering where this financial crisis has come from, you need look no further than the money pit that this “Bypass” has become. The Wall Government has capitalized on personal tragedies to justify an ever-growing financial mess with the false pretense that public safety was the key driver – when it’s so obviously been on private profit.
Therefore, let’s get back to the basics here, let’s strip all of the non-essential “nice to have” items that the Wall Government has added over the years, and focus where it most counts – public safety. When you consider that the total cost of the project is pegged at $1.88 Billion, and the total length of the Bypass is approximately 55 linear kilometres, you get an average cost of $34.2 Million per linear kilometre. Let’s forget about the entire Southern Leg of the Bypass, which is 25KM, as that is nearly a billion dollars alone (including P3 costs), which could be saved and redirected towards saving STC, the public libraries, municipal grants-in-lieu, municipal parks, and the list goes on and on and on. Let’s defer all other non-essential work along the West Side of the Bypass, approximately 15KM, and you could save another half billion dollars (including P3 costs) that could further help to reduce or eliminate these ill-advised cuts. Finally, deferring any work along Tower Road, about 5KM, could save an additional $170 Million (including P3 costs), which would also send a powerful message to those who were allowed to influence the decision to locate the East Terminal of the Bypass through the middle of their lands.
At the end of the day, there is only one place that needs to be looked at for a meaningful cost savings – The Regina Bypass. All the other cuts are simply band-aid measures to the gaping knife wound that has developed because of the way the mismanagement by the Wall Government over the past decade. Let’s all band together and focus on getting that Bypass surgery done, before we all suffer a heart attack because of all these nickel and dime cuts imposed by the Wall Government.
Chad A. Novak, CPA, CMA
Saskatchewan Taxpayers Advocacy Group
