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Jean: Province doesn't prioritize 63 for political reasons

Hear Rock 97.9’s Chris Byrne’s full conversation with Brian Jean:
[audio:http://pmd.country933.com/audio/tyler-news/63-brian-jean.mp3]

Fort McMurray’s member of parliament is joining the chorus of people calling the twinning of Highway 63 far too slow.

Brian Jean says the resources are available to get the project done faster.

“I really don’t think it’s an issue of manpower,” he said. “Really, it’s about priorities in the province. The ring roads, for instance, in Calgary and Edmonton were pretty much just concepts at the time they approved Highway 63 [twinning].”

He says there’s a simple explanation for why those ring roads were finished faster.

“Let’s face facts; we had one MLA and one constituency provincially in Fort McMurray up until recently,” he said. “And we have a lot more MLAs affected in Edmonton and Calgary, so as a result of that, often priorities go where the people are, or where the votes are.”

Jean says even though raw numbers of vehicles on 63 are lower than other twinned highways, the type of traffic makes it clear that 63 needs to be twinned, and that it isn’t happening fast enough.

Published April 30, 2012