SaskParty Says NDP Not Ready For Road Link

SaskParty Says NDP Not Ready For Road Link

Friday, January 20, 2006 at 16:22

The leader of the Saskatchewan Party says he worries northern Saskatchewan will miss out on the oil sands boom in northern Alberta.

Brad Wall says his jaw dropped when he saw the size of the oil sands project in Fort McMurray by helicopter this week.

Wall and a delegation of fellow Saskatchewan Party MLAs toured that region this week in a fact-finding tour.

Wall claims the NDP government hasn’t been doing enough to prepare itself for when the Garson Lake road is finished and a highway link to Fort McMurray is in place.

He says the fundamentals of the Saskatchewan economy are going to have to change before then, or northerners will just head over to Alberta for quick jobs instead of creating businesses here.

Wall says the government should be asking itself what it could sell to the oil sands development and what businesses it could attract.

Wall’s position has been challenged by Industry and Resources minister Eric Cline, though, who says those steps are already happening.