YORKTON - It was good news for the city and area agriculture producers as Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe held a press conference locally last week.
Moe was at Richardson Oilseed just outside Yorkton last Wednesday to pledge provincial support for improvements to Grain Millers Drive, north of the city.
Moe told a small gathering at a press conference the Government of Saskatchewan has committed to funding up to 50 per cent of the cost of improvements of the roadway citing Grain Millers Drive as a vital transportation corridor that supports significant economic activity in the region.
“Grain Millers Drive is a critical access point for several major agri-businesses and industries,” Premier Scott Moe said. “This is a key artery for the movement of goods and services, connecting local producers to national and international markets.”
That’s big news locally as the connector road services major industry locally – two canola crush facilities, a new pea processor being built, and an oat processor, all of which builds on Yorkton being the hub of a vibrant agricultural sector.
Farmers from a large area haul their crops to the city to be further processed, creating jobs here, and stimulating the city’s economy.
The announcement of a road upgrade to better service the existing industries, while also having a design eye to being adequate for additional development along the connector road is important to the city’s future.
But, like provincial announcements that a new regional hospital will be built in Yorkton without any specifics as to when that build might occur – it has been a local desire for years and years – the Grain Millers Drive project is something of a mystery too.
Few details came with Wednesday’s announcement including no actual dollar amount tied to the province’s 50 per cent, how the partnering municipalities – the City of Yorkton and RM of Orkney – would share their 50 per cent of costs, or when the project might actually get under way.
The first step is a study – studies being a prerequisite to just about every project undertaken these day – to determine just what is required. In this case a plan is a good idea as one needs to crystal ball just what might develop along the roadway. However, it will be at best a good guess. Even when the initial twin canola plants were announced within hours of each other few expected both would be built and fewer still would have predicted the mammoth expansions which has taken place at both facilities since the first opened.
Yorkton Mayor Aaron Kienle hopes the study is done by year end.
Then comes the crunch.
How much will the city need to fund? How much from the RM of Orkney?
Then when will the province budget it’s promised contribution? That will be interesting to see as the most recent budget numbers for the province appear far deeper in the red than they had planned. So how might that impact future project funding?
Ultimately Moe’s announcement is a positive one, although it leaves many unanswered questions that will need answered before work begins.
