Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

FORT SMITH (Jul 13/98) - An almost endless saga may be coming to an end.

For more than 30 years now Fort Smith has fought tooth and nail for a better route to the South through Wood Buffalo National Park.

In December 1993 a motion was made in the legislative assembly encouraging road construction through the park. Supporters say a new road would boost the economy of Fort Smith and surrounding NWT communities.

Federal officials, however, are reluctant to allow a potentially disruptive road through the park.

"The relationship with the park has never been good from day one," said Fort Smith Mayor Peter Martselos.

Support for a road has come from all sides, including the Salt River First Nation, Fort Smith Metis Nation, Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger and NWT Transportation Minister Jim Antoine.

The park, however, has held off making any commitment allowing the 120-kilometre road between Peace Point and Garden Creek and on to Fort Vermilion.

An old road through the park built in the late 1950s follows the same route but it fell into disuse and is now overgrown.

Martselos said the park has been overly protective and the community is losing out on lucrative tourist income.

"We had some discussions lately with the band and the Metis and they were extremely upset because they say if we can't benefit from the park, there's no reason for it to exist," said Martselos.

"We don't want to benefit to the extent that we're going to build high rises or different things in the park. We want to go in and open a little road so we can bring in tourists into the community so the community benefits."

Right now, a person travelling by car would take about eight hours to get from Fort Vermilion to Fort Smith. A new road would cut travelling time in half.

Martselos is optimistic that Fort Smith will get its road in the next year or two. He is planning a meeting with Western Arctic MP Ethel Blondin-Andrew within the next couple of weeks to discuss the issue.

Wood Buffalo National Park superintendent Peter Lamb disagrees the park is being overly protective and says the park is inviting the community to come forward with a proper road construction proposal.

"The department's position is that we will entertain the proposal for the road. The proposal would be subject to conditions.... One condition is that it would be subject to an environmental assessment. If there were environmental implications they would be have to be dealt with. There would also be a socio-economic assessment," said Lamb.

Parks Canada also says it help pay for the road because it is not being build for national park purposes.

The last time a road proposal was brought forward to Parks Canada, in 1993, it was turned down because of insufficient details, he said. Nothing has been brought forward since.

Discussions are continuing, however.

"We had a meeting with the park superintendent the same time Ethel Blondin-Andrew was here. At that time they made a commitment to support a road or look into getting a road in through the park," said Ethel Chalifoux, vice-president of the Fort Smith Metis Nation.

Nothing definite has been received from the park since then, but a meeting was scheduled with Lamb last Friday.