Highway 3 twinning group analyzing economic impact

By Al Beeber

Alberta Newspaper Group

An economic footprint analysis is going to be studying the twinning of the remaining sections of Highway 3 in Alberta.

The Highway 3 Twinning Association has retained PriceWaterhouseCooper Canada to complete the study.

It will consists of two components, one being the estimation of the direct and indirect economic and tax footprint that twinning is expected to create. The other part of the study consists of identifying and assessing wider socio-economic impacts of twinning.

The twinning association says draft reviews will be expected by late summer with the final report to be approved by the association in the fall. When it is finished, the study will be distributed among various parties including the provincial and federal transportation departments, southern Alberta MPs and MLAs and economic development partners.

Twinning association president Bill Chapman on June 22 said the twinning study “is important to all of us,” referring to stakeholders who could benefit from the rest of Highway 3 being twinned.

“This is really mainly to prove the GDP of southern Alberta is growing, that the agri-food, agriculture, agri-business side is developing at a vast rate and the fact the government of Alberta is really trying to capitalize on agriculture and try to make this corridor, southern Alberta, the agriculture capital of Canada,” Chapman said.

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