When Minister Tim McMillan paid a visit to the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce Dec. 10, the first thing he talked about was not the economy of Saskatchewan, nor it's roads and highways.
Rather, the first thing McMillan wanted to talk about was John Cairns' News Watch column on the Premier's Dinner.
"My chief of staff has teased me mercilessly," joked McMillan.
The Premier's Dinner, held last October in Lloydminster, was missing a key person: the premier. Brad Wall's plane was forced to turn back to Regina due to heavy fog.
That left Lloydminster MLA McMillan to fill in at the last moment with a hastily prepared address.
In his column the following week, Cairns wrote, "Well, great. Here I'd come all the way to Lloydminster on the company dime, and for what? A speech by Tim McMillan! Well, at least the food was good."
As he spoke to the Chamber of Commerce members over a lunch catered by Second to None, McMillan said, "At the end of this, at least we'll be able to say the food was really good."
McMillan went on to outline some of the improvements the Government of Saskatchewan has made to roads and highways, naming Highway 40 as the biggest project of the year.
"I'm sure it was inconvenient," said McMillan. "But it's like kitchen renovations, once it's done it's something you'll look back on for many years as something that was well worth the effort."
McMillan explained the government is working towards bringing highways in line with Alberta's and British Columbia's in terms of weight restrictions.
Currently, Saskatchewan has the lowest load limit of the three, which means commercial trucks often have to off-load at the border.
"If a truck can haul larger payloads, it means fewer trips," explained McMillan of the benefits.
The change, announced early in May 2010, came on the heels of Saskatchewan joining the New West Partnership with Alberta and British Columbia, with the goal of removing barriers to trade and investment in the three westernmost provinces.
"As a land-locked but export-based province, Saskatchewan needs to invest in the primary weight highway network," said McMillan.
Town of Battleford mayor Chris Odishaw said, "It's always a pleasure to have Tim come and reaffirm his government's commitment to this community."
Odishaw added the town has and will be benefitting from the upgrades to Highway 40.
Although City of North Battleford mayor Ian Hamilton said it was nice McMillan is keeping the community informed on projects happening within the province, he wasn't so quick to attribute growth in the Battlefords to highway projects.
"I don't think they've been very definitive," said Hamilton, adding the greatest contributor to growth has likely been the discontinuation of the rail line, which translated to goods being shipped from Meadow Lake by truck. This influx of trucks, which Hamilton estimates to be around 20,000 per year, has increased business for area fueling stations, hotels and repair shops, he said.
Whatever the reason, Hamilton said the Battlefords boast a host of amenities that aren't mentioned enough in the media, including Table Mountain, the Allen Sapp and Chapel galleries and nearby lakes.
"Cities in Canada and even across the world don't have the amenities we do," said Hamilton.
