Saskatoon’s potential freeway plan is hitting opposition as some residents feel it will encroach on some of the city’s northernmost greenery.
The province’s Ministry of Highways, the rural municipality of Corman Park and the City of Saskatoon worked in partnership to create a study in 1999 that wrapped up in 2001, looking at a long-term transportation study.
That study set the stage for planning for a highway route around the city from Highway 11 on the south end to Highway 14 in the west, wrapping around the city on the east and north end.
General location studies have been done on several parts of the project between 2005 and 2018, with city council endorsing each of these alignments.
The plan has evolved over the years, with the phase two endorsement request coming to the table at city council Wednesday after the city provided some review comments and the ministry responded to them.
The proposed four-lane, 55-kilometre-long divided highway currently has no financial implications yet, but the work on the highway is expected to be funded by the Government of Saskatchewan.
City administration is recommending that the city endorse the study, saying there are no evident advantages to not endorsing it and no disadvantages to endorsing it.
More than 80 emails were submitted to the city, with at least most of them asking for the city to not endorse the project, saying that this could cause damage to the Northeast and Small Swales.
Swale Watchers, a group of residents concerned about the wellbeing of the wetlands and grasslands north of the Evergreen and Aspen Ridge areas, has also been vocal on the matter, submitting a letter outlining that concern.
“We thought then, as we think now, that forcing a major highway – eight to ten lanes of highspeed traffic – through two prized natural areas is regressive and unwise. Our best advice to you is to vote for Option one and reject the proposed route for Phase two of the Freeway through the Swales,” the letter said.
“It is simply not accurate to list the disadvantages of approving this development as ‘none evident.’ Building the freeway in this corridor will cause irreversible harm to both Swales, fracturing a connected ribbon of grassland and wetland habitats into broken fragments and exposing these lands and waters to increased risk from invasive species, toxic chemicals and noise and light pollution.”