They characterized the meeting as being disappointing, and they left it feeling somewhat discouraged, but by no means are they giving up the battle.
In fact the team that is attempting to get Highway 39 and Highway 6 south twinned from the United States border to Regina, is more determined than ever following their recent encounter with Highways and Infrastucture Minister Jim Reiter and Estevan MLA Doreen Eagles last Tuesday.
Marg Young and Lauralie Ireland think that perhaps there needs to be an official lobbying group formed to drive the point home with the current provincial government ministry.
"We had called the Ministry earlier in September, wanting to deliver the safety surveys we had collected as well as the petition that had gone around," said Ireland.
They were given that meeting on Tuesday and they were joined by Time to Twin committee members Bert Parent as well as Janet Devernachuk and her daughter Janelle from Regina who lost their son/brother in a highway collision near Macoun a couple of years ago.
"We were told by Mr. Reiter that the amount of money that would be used for twinning the highway would be better used for building passing lanes on several highways in the province, and that would reduce the traffic hazard by about 20 per cent," said Young.
The committee urged Reiter to accept and read the more than 200 personal safety risk stories from southeast Saskatchewan drivers that they brought to his office as well as the 1,100 signature petition.
"We only put the petition in trucking companies and a few other locations. We didn't have the time to place them all around the communities," Young said.
Even with limited distribution, they felt that the number of signatures indicates that the highways ministry needed to pay attention to the southeast sector.
"We sometimes feel we're fighting a losing battle," said Young.
"Mr. Reiter told us quite simply and plainly that he won't be pressured by the people, and he didn't care if we kept going to the media. He's said that before," she added.
In the meantime, Ireland and Young have raised the issue of traffic volume, economics and safety with Reiter and his predecessors, so far, to no avail. They said they felt they had made the case in all three sectors including their own traffic volume counts that are within five per cent of the counts done by others, so they can vouch for their validity.
"We have thousands of vehicles on this highway every day. The majority of them are big units, semis and construction-type vehicles being driven by tired people," said Young.
The duo, when speaking with The Mercury last Thursday, said they learned that there is a concentrated move afoot by a dedicated American lobbying group known as the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway committee who are pushing for a twinned highway from Regina to the port of Regway that would connect with U.S. Interstate Highway No. 2. They said that group had held three days of conferencing with Saskatchewan's highway officials not too long ago, and wonder if that needs to be the next step to take to impress upon the ministry that the route from North Portal through Estevan and Weyburn needs more serious consideration too, especially since the Americans are in the process of building a huge multi-million dollar customs, immigration and security centre in Portal.
Young said she fears that the American group, headed by Cal Klewin will make the case for the Regina to Regway route.
"That way, they'd only need to twin as far as Corinne and maybe to Regway and we'd be left with passing lanes, or nothing," she said.
Ireland said they were told by Reiter that Highway 39 didn't have the highest traffic volume of those highways being considered for twinning in the future.
"But he wouldn't comment on the type of traffic," she said.
The meeting with Reiter and Eagles lasted about 40 minutes, the women said.
"Janet tried to emphasize the fact that the semi-trailer traffic on 39 is about 10 to 1 in ratio compared with cars," said Ireland.
"The highway condition itself is horrible. The narrow shoulders don't allow any room for error when a driver has to pull over to avoid a collision and now with all the water in the ditches, we add the extra fear of drowning now," said Ireland with a smile.
"We didn't get a sense of timeline regarding a decision either. We know they're heading into an election, so we knew they wouldn't be wanting to talk about that at this time," said Young.
"We were also told that the amount of money going into the government coffers from the southeast didn't matter, that they had to be fair to the entire province," said Young.
"So we're building up the rest of the province with no safety factor even on our side. We have two cities that are bulging at the seams and frightened drivers. At least the bus company might get a little more business because of this," said Ireland.
The two women said they felt that passing lanes would never address the ongoing problem of continual high traffic volumes pretty well every day.
"Some highways have volume surges as people come and go from resort areas and cottage country, but 39 is a steady, high volume highway. The global transportation hub out of Regina is only adding to that as is the clean-coal project in Estevan," said Young.
The two women said they didn't know whether or not the twinned highway question will ever make it to the campaign trail, but with Eagles holding a huge lead in the opinion polling, it might not.
"In the meantime, the Americans are making a pitch for the Regway route and a lot of truckers got used to that while Highway 39 was pretty well shut down for a month after the flood," said Ireland. "We were a bit discouraged. We know that we're supposed to be team players for the province, but darn it, the south should count too. We can't always be taken for granted by the politicians can we?"
The two women said they perhaps needed some people on their side who had some political or economic clout or influence with those who could drive the point home in a more forceful manner. They felt that while they were being given a somewhat sympathetic ear, the ear was deaf. They said they felt the trucking companies realized the needs, but their owners and managers were busy and none-too-anxious to get involved in political wrangling with a government they generally supported.
"Then we have the never-ending truck route situation around here. A lot of people are having their attention diverted to this issue and how many decades have we had to sort that out with governments, and we still don't have it?" said Young.
"Oh yes, we're discouraged, but not defeated and a lot of people have told us not to take down our website and to keep on going, so we will."
