Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (Aug 14/00) - A proposal to build a new road into Fort Smith has completed the final public information session held in Edmonton last week.

The proposed road would travel 115 kilometres through Wood Buffalo National Park from Peace Point to Garden River and on to Fort Vermilion.

Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger said the road would bring extra dollars into the community through the road construction, maintenance and tourism.

"I think any kind of activity of this nature is of great benefit to the community," Miltenberger said. "It's been an issue here for 40 years and we are at the end of the road."

He said the northeast section of Alberta is isolated from the rest of the province and it will provide a loop for tourists visiting the park as well as nearby neighbours visiting.

"It will be another choice for tourists and in the North; the best tourists we have are people from adjoining communities," he said. "They come to town for ball and hockey tournaments and bingo and they stay to shop and they stay over and spend money."

Miltenberger has been a proponent of the road since he was mayor of Fort Smith and he believes a new transportation route is long overdue.

"This has been pushed by every mayor for 40 years and I pushed for it when I was mayor back in the mid-eighties," Miltenberger said. "Transportation links like road and rail lines have built this country, but we have a section of the country that doesn't have that connection and we are trying to establish that link here for 40 years."

At last Tuesday's meeting in Edmonton, Sam Gunsch, executive director for the Edmonton chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, said the proposal was lacking in several areas.

He said there were more than 20 "information gaps" where necessary data has not been supplied.

"There was no new information regarding the environmental assessment," he said. "There was nothing of substance added with regards to transportation justification or economic justification or any quantitative measures of social values."

Further, Gunsch said the "cursory survey" that was conducted in Fort Smith at a public meeting did not indicate strong support for the project to continue.

"Of the people who attended the meetings in Fort Smith, it was almost 50-50; it fell only slightly in favour of the road," he said.

The number of people who would use the road has yet to be proven, he said.

"They say that travel between Garden River and Fort Smith for personal business and recreational use justified the demand, but that isn't quantified," Gunsch explained. "I'm told less than 50 people in Garden River are connected through social relationships in Fort Smith."

"To demand we clear 118 kilometres on speculated use is not responsible use of the park," he added.

Gordon Villebrun, President of the Thebacha Road Society, said over the 40 years he's lived in Fort Smith, almost everyone has been in support of the new road south.

"I would say in Fort Smith, 98 per cent of the people are supporting this road," Villebrun said. "I didn't hear any negative stuff against the road -- they'd love to see this road go in."

Villebrun said he also met with people following the meeting in Edmonton who would like to visit the North.

"There were a few elders in Edmonton who said they would love to travel up to Fort Smith to visit friends and family during the winter months," he said.

During the winter, the road system would link relatives from Fort Chipewyan to Garden River to Fort Smith.

He said teams from La Crete and Fort Vermilion come to Fort Smith for hockey tournaments and curling bonspiels.

"It can take them anywhere from 13 to 14 hours to get here," he said.

He disagrees with CPAWS' argument that very few people will use the road and thinks it will spur economies in all towns effected by the circle route through the North.

"Nobody can predict how many people will use this road, but once we open it they will come," he said. "To come see the buffalo, they have to drive some 500 kilometres; they don't want to drive back another 500 kilometres."

"By opening this road, people from the rest of Canada can come and really see what the North is all about -- they can't keep us as ornaments up here," Villebrun said. "We have the right to live like other Canadians in comfort and I think this will be a great benefit to all people in the North."