The response has drawn a response. The Time to Twin Highways 39 and 6 south spokeswomen, Marge Young and Lauralie Ireland, told The Mercury this week that Saskatchewan Highways and Infrastructure Minister Jim Reiter's response to their previous remarks probably required some clarification.
The two said they didn't want to continually keep dragging the highway twinning subject into the media spotlight, but felt Reiter's remarks required a quick reply.
"In our meeting with Mr. Reiter, the only option that was discussed was passing lanes," said Young. "He did not discuss twinning possibilities as he did in his discussion with you, (The Mercury). We were left with the impression that it would be passing lanes or nothing. And while we understand that passing lanes can reduce accidents, they are also a hazard because of the traffic merging problem," she said.
"We're not making this political. We have worked hard to remain politically neutral on this subject of twinning and have no problem with the current government or its administration. We just care about having a safe highway and we feel strongly that the only appropriate highway would be a twinned highway," Young added.
"We also heard from the minister that this issue was about safety, not politics, and that's what he said in The Mercury, yet less than a week after saying that, he attended a political rally in Yorkton and told the people there that twinning Highway 16 between Yorkton and Saskatoon would probably be the next major twinning project after the Highway 11 program is completed. He's the one who is making it political," said Young.
"What we really fear is that we'll have passing lanes forced on us for Highway 39 and then they'll never look at us again," said Ireland, noting how large stretches of the highway are currently in bad condition from heavy trucks and high traffic volumes.
"We just don't see passing lanes working, not with the number of semis that stack up ahead and behind the smaller vehicles, and everyone is travelling at 70 to 75 miles per hour," said Young.
The two women confirmed Reiter's response regarding meetings with the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway committee. They said their contact person with that group affirmed that his group had only held a few meetings with the Saskatchewan Highways and Infrastructure representatives and the nature of the meetings generally focused on forming an alliance and none of the sessions were lengthy.
"So we go back to saying that we need to take care of the people who have to be on our highway every day, especially during peak periods," said Young. "As for forcing this issue into the political ring, all I can add to that is ask the question. Who can we go to regarding this subject? If we can't go to our elected officials, we would hope someone could tell us who else we should be talking with about this problem." said Ireland.
"I'm afraid we're coming off as just being too persistent on this subject and perhaps some people in the Highways Ministry don't like that, but we just can't let them take us for granted time after time," said Young. "When the elected representatives bring up the topics of the Energy Training Institute being built here, or the clean coal plant at Boundary as examples of government not ignoring us, my only response is that the subject becomes political again and what the heck, they had to come here, there were no other valid alternatives. If the Energy Training Institute and clean coal plant hadn't been put in this region, it would have been a very absurd decision," Young said in conclusion.
