'We want it to move ahead': Premier responds to Shoal Lake Freedom Road's rising price tag
Officials with Manitoba Infrastructure working on ways to drop the final price tag
Officials with Manitoba Infrastructure are working on ways to drop the "moving target" cost for a much-needed road to the isolated Shoal Lake 40 First Nation but the premier says they want project to move ahead.
The initial cost to construct Freedom Road from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation was estimated at $30 million. Internal documents from the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs obtained by CBC show the government knew the cost would be well over that, as much as $52 million dollars.
On Friday, Manitoba Infrastructure confirmed the number is now is now pegged at $54 million.
"We want it to move ahead," Premier Brian Pallister said.
Shoal Lake was isolated about a century ago during the construction of the water intake system that has fed water to Winnipeg ever since. Despite providing Winnipeg with drinking water, the community itself has no clean drinking water of its own and has been under a boil-water advisory for nearly two decades.
The new all-weather road will give year-round road access to Shoal Lake, which is still dependent on winter ice roads and ferries to get people to and from the First Nation.
Pallister said that estimates are on the rise.
"Valuative work has been going on and the initial cost estimate was a fraction of the cost estimate that it is now," Pallister said. "It seems a moving target, but right now they are valuing and still doing additional design work."
Officials with Manitoba Infrastructure are working on ways to drop the final price tag for the work, Pallister said.
The province, City of Winnipeg and federal government have all committed to fund the project. In March, Winnipeg City Council voted to increase its share of the construction work.
