ESTEVAN — The Rural Municipality of Coalfields will receive funding for two capital projects, including $717,249 to help with the upgrade of Primary Grid Road 605 from Bienfait to Lampman, and $233,200 to restore the La Roche Percee Provincial Historic Site.
The funding from Prairies Economic Development Canada's (PrairiesCan) Canada Coal Transition Initiative was announced last week. According to a news release, the investments support the efforts of communities with coal-fired power to upgrade community infrastructure, attract new investment opportunities and create jobs.
RM of Coalfields chief administrative officer Monica Kovach said they started working on Grid 605 last summer. The road was in desperate need of repairs as a main connector between two active municipalities.
"When the RM upgraded this road, we applied for that funding, because the road is a main access in between Lampman and Bienfait and off of [Highway] 18 to the north to get up there to those other municipalities, especially for people who are travelling for a variety of reasons between the municipalities," Kovach noted.
"The 605 will be completely repaved, and it is almost completed. We have a bit more work to do here this summer. Two more inches of lift need to be added to the road. And then it will be repaved," she added.
The cost of the project, which is expected to be completed this summer, will be about $12 million, and announced funding will help with some expenses, Kovach said.
In the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways Provincial Traffic Count from 2021, Grid 605 had the highest average daily traffic (ADT) count of any road in the RM of Coalfields.
The road is being upgraded from its current weight restriction of 10,000 pounds (4,535 kilograms) to primary weight standards. This will divert heavy truck traffic to Grid 605 and remove it from other non-primary roads in the RM, which will reduce the long-term impacts on the RM's roads and improve conditions for farm families and community members living along these roads.
The RM of Coalfields tendered the project jointly with the RM of Browning in November 2022. Councils and administrations of both RM's agreed that a joint tender would generate extensive interest from road construction contractors throughout the province and provide the most cost-effective result, thereby benefitting both RM's.
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The restoration of the La Roche Percee Provincial Historic Site begins in the spring of 2024. This site is unique to Saskatchewan, and the heritage value of La Roche Percee site lies in its status as an important First Nation and North-West Mounted Police landmark, as well as a visual record of the region's ever-changing historical landscape.
"The site remains a significant landmark and is considered sacred by First Nations and locals. Restoring this unique destination by adding picnic tables, new lighting, new pathways and paving the road will significantly increase tourism to the area," said a press release.
Village of Roche Percee Mayor Jay Riedel said he started searching for funding in 2021 after an incident. He wanted to help preserve the site and make it more convenient for locals and tourists alike a while ago.
"I got a call, one time, somebody got up in the Roche Percee Rocks, it must have been in the evening, and they went in there and spray-painted some of the area," Riedel shared. "So, I thought, if we were able to get a streetlight out front, at least people driving by could see [that someone was there] or they would see the light lit up at night, and it might deter them from doing any damage there."
Riedel reached out to SaskPower for a quote and then started searching for grants in co-operation with the RM of Coalfields. With approval from Sask. Parks, they applied for coal transition funding.
"It went from a streetlight to lighting up the rocks at night. … And I also wanted to put some picnic tables and some benches so that when the kids are playing in the cave the grandparents or the parents can sit and watch and take pictures. And then in all the years I've been down there, over 30 years, a lot of times even before I was on council, I would talk to people up there and they didn't realize that there's a lot more in behind and you got to walk through the path to find it. … So [I also wanted to put] signage, some little arrows along the pathway," Riedel said, outlining his vision of the site improvements.
"And we're going to put new signage right at the rocks, plus, we're going to put some signs on the highways, two signs so that people know it's there. And with some of the money [we want to develop] a website and the sign by the rocks would have a QR-code that would take you to a site that would give you the links to all the history of everything in there. Because a lot of people don't realize how much history there is. There's little bits and pieces here but nothing really in one central place."
Once the work begins, the village will call for volunteers to help with the project.
"I want to get a bunch of people, whether they're residents, or people from Estevan and surrounding area that can come and help, donate some time. Let's put this place back on the map where it needs to be," Riedel said.
The grant will cover the current revitalization project, but Riedel also has more ideas on how to preserve the history of the area, and he said that once his two biggest projects are completed he might look into more funding opportunities and potentially reach out to the Historical Society to try to preserve some carvings at the rocks.
"When I ran for mayor down there, those were two things that I was running on. I wanted to get that highway coming into Roche Percee repaved, which we did last year at a cost of $500,000, and thank you to Lori Carr and to the Ministry of Highways for having that done because there was a safety hazard. And the other thing was to get some revitalization done at the rocks because I want to preserve the history up there," Riedel said.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the North West Mounted Police's first arrival in the area, and Riedel hopes they will be able to organize an event this July to celebrate the local historic milestone.
He added that Roche Percee Rocks revitalization is bigger than a simple site improvement.
"The devastation of the flood in 2011 had everybody lost. We lost the community through all that. A lot of people moved out of there because of that. And I think we just need to get something to rally the community together again, and [this project] would probably bring everybody together again, and maybe even attract people from outside," Riedel said.
He also thanked everyone involved with the project.
"I would thank Sask. Parks, the RM of Coalfields, Southeast Saskatchewan Economic Partnership and the PrairiesCan for supporting what I wanted to do. It's taken a lot of people a lot of time to put it all together and I just want to put a thank you to everybody that helped out," Riedel said.
He added his next hope would be to keep improving the rec centre. He is also looking into possibilities to upgrade the village wells.
