(Photo: Highway 956-Ministry of Highways)
Today in La Loche, the government of Saskatchewan announced that the all-weather road connecting La Loche to Fort McMurray is nearing completion.
The final stretch of Highway 956 near Garson Lake heading to the Alberta border that needs to be constructed is roughly 10 kilometres. The Ministry of Highways has committed over $9 million for the project.
Construction on the 9.8 kilometre segment began in August 2023.
(Photo: Athabasca MLA Jim Lemaigre-Ministry of Highways)
“This is a significant milestone for me; this is a campaign promise that we made and for us to follow through with it; I think that’s significant as communities have advocated, and I have advocated for the completion of this, and so it’s quite rewarding to see that so many communities have come out to celebrate with us today,” stated Athabasca MLA Jim Lemaigre.
The road between La Loche and Fort McMurray was initially announced in 2005. Saskatchewan broke ground on its portion of the Highway in 2007 and completed 44 of the total 53 kilometres in 2008.
According to the Canadian Transportation Research Forum, there are around 15,000 fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) full-time workers in the Rural Municipality of Wood Buffalo, and 45% of Fort McMurray Airport passengers are FIFO.
“A lot of people are employed in Alberta, so right now because of the road not being completed, they have to fly to work, so it’s not only impacting this area but other communities as well, so by completing our portion and Alberta saying they’re going to take a look at it, we’re quite excited that this will change many lives,” explained Lemaigre.
There is no timeline for when the province will complete the final stretch, and Alberta still has work to do on their side.