Road work sinks oil sands rail hopes

The Alberta government will pump C$530 million over the next decade into road improvements in the province’s northeastern oil sands region.

Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Lyle Oberg said the work is needed to “support rapid economic activity,” and if the Alberta economy remains strong the completion date could be advanced.

The announcement likely sounds the death-knell for boosters of an expanded rail link from Edmonton to Fort McMurray —a project that carried a price tag of C$2.6 billion over four years.

The rail plans had already been dealt a setback by the Athabasca Regional Issues Working Group, an alliance of oil sands developers, who argued the project would cost their industry too much in tariffs and freight charges.

Instead, the group has mounted a campaign for a twinning of the highway to north of Fort McMurray.

—Gary Park