The City of Cold Lake is continuing to hammer the province for neglecting Highway 28.

A letter was sent to the Treasury Board pointing out examples where after Government of Alberta announcements of new roadway projects, dollars were right away set aside in the long-term capital plans.

This follows the frustration of local municipalities who were disappointed that Highway 28 was not indicated in the 2024-2027 Capital Plan, to follow the $5 million engineering study.

MLA Scott Cyr had said in a letter of response that it would be, “uncommon, if not unprecedented,” to commit dollars before the study was finished.

“What we were showing was, there was other three highways, we looked at Highway 11, Highway 881 and Highway 63, north of Fort Mac, where the province had announced $50-$100 million towards these big highways. And yet the design wasn’t done,” said Mayor Craig Copeland on The Morning After.

“Why not come in and put your stamp on here show everybody up in this region that you’re going to be putting significant money up this way — because it’s very frustrating.

“Our oil sands operations is up here half a million barrels a day are just cranking out the royalties to the province to the feds, and we’re just not getting anything back in return.”

But concerns went deeper, as there was no new spend on any aspect of the northeast. Highway 28 remains the signature issue.

The Morning After with Craig Copeland