Harper promotes transport hub in Manitoba
Area mayor questions wisdom of CentrePort plan in region frequently flooded
WINNIPEG — With long stretches of Manitoba's roads and rails submerged beneath floodwaters that continue to baffle forecasters, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced his government's support yesterday for the construction of a Winnipeg-based road and rail hub.
The federal and provincial governments will chip in more than $100-million each to build a four-lane expressway that would link CentrePort - a 20,000-acre manufacturing, warehousing and transportation depot slated for construction near the Winnipeg airport - with major rail and highway networks.
The announcement was made as flood-protection officials upgraded crest forecasts along the Red River to the third-highest levels in the past 100 years.
Mr. Harper, who spent much of the day with Manitoba Premier Gary Doer touring the sodden Red River Valley by helicopter, pledged federal assistance to homeowners.
"The federal government stands ready to assist in any way that is needed," he said.
But as money flows into the CentrePort project, one southern Manitoba mayor questioned the appeal of a North American hub that relies on transportation arteries so frequently severed during times of flood.
"If we want to be recognized as a mid-continental trade corridor we have to able to provide the transportation, and right now that's where we are lacking," said Dale Hoffman, mayor of Morris, Man., situated 70 kilometres south of Winnipeg. "We have to get our highways out of the floodwaters first."
Morris sits along Highway 75, the main road between Winnipeg and the U.S. With a ring dike surrounding Morris sealed off due to high water, traffic is detouring 45 minutes around the town.
Mr. Hoffman showed Mr. Harper around the town's extensive dike system yesterday, but said he didn't have time to suggest solutions to the highway problem.
One of Mr. Hoffman's proposals involves digging a channel along the Red all the way from the U.S. border to Lake Winnipeg, a 180-kilometre span.
"You're talking possibly a 50-year project," he said. "What we need is a vision for how we're going to stop the flooding from happening every third year."
Mr. Doer said he discussed flood-proofing Highway 75 with Mr. Harper yesterday.
"We have five or six options we're looking at," he said.
Meanwhile, some residents north of Winnipeg whose houses were battered by automobile-sized ice pans over the weekend returned to assess the damage. In all, floodwaters have damaged about 200 homes, the province says.
In St. Laurent, 90 kilometres north of Winnipeg, overland flooding crept across half the town's roads yesterday, swamping basements and causing cancellation of school bus service.
"This is the worst I've ever seen," said town councillor Hugh Sigurdson. "All the water decided to come at once and come with a bang - and it's not done yet."
Indeed, flood forecasters raised the expected crest of the Red River in Winnipeg by half a metre yesterday. The city asked for volunteers to top up 60 dikes and raise 40 more.
Chief provincial flood forecaster Alf Warkentin said unprecedented ice cover, high local runoff and an unusually long crest north of the border have all worked to complicate his projections.
"Forecasting is never 100 per cent accurate," he said. "Sometimes you get a little surprise."
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