A long-awaited and much-lobbied-for highway realignment to address traffic woes in Fort Macleod has found a home in the province’s first deficit budget since 2021.
Capital spending in the budget tabled last Thursday includes the first stage of the realignment and connection of highways 2 and 3 at the east entrance to the town. The project is named in $264-million in new funding over three years allocated for highway twinning, widening and expansion.
Alberta Budget 2025 anticipates a $5.2-billion deficit to allow spending of $74.1-billion, as the province braces for the economic turmoil likely to stem from U.S. tariffs mused upon, revised, scheduled and rescheduled by Donald Trump.
Said Nate Horner, the finance minister and president of the Treasury Board: “The budget meets the challenge of a rapidly growing population with the highest-ever investments in education and health care, and it’s meeting the challenge of uncertainties in trade and security by focusing on diplomacy and the economy.”
The budget takes “a cautious approach,” Horner said. “We built in an expectation that the province will be facing tariffs that will significantly impact our province. These measures will dampen Alberta’s trajectory for growth.”
Budget 2025’s capital plan earmarks $2.5 billion over three years — 10 per cent of the capital plan’s total funding — for roads and bridges, highway expansion and improvement, and other transportation safety upgrades.
Proponents in Fort Macleod, including town council, have for years sought movement from the province to proceed on realignment, saying the project will relieve traffic congestion and spur commerce. Budget 2025 says the realignment will support expansion of the region’s trade corridors.
Also covered by the new dollars are:
- A new interchange with Highway 2 at Cardiff Road, just south of Morinville and north of Edmonton, replacing an existing at-grade, signalized intersection.
- An interchange at Highway 1 and Range Road 33 in Rockyview County, west of Calgary, designed to improve access, support growth and enhance safety in the Springbank region.
- Improvements along Highway 791 to create a paved, continuous connection between Highway 590 and Highway 42, just east of the QE2 in an area near Penhold about halfway between Innisfail and Red Deer.
- Paving Highway 58, the only access route to the remote northern Alberta communities of John D’Or Prairie, Fox Lake and Garden River. “The paved highway will improve mobility for more than 5,500 local residents, boost economic activity in the region and allow unimpeded access for emergency vehicles,” the budget says.
- Detailed design work for safety improvements on Highway 28, “a critical transportation route” serving industry and Canadian Armed Forces in Cold Lake.
- Paving of Highway 686 between Peerless Lake and Trout Lake, plus the start of design work to extend the highway from Fort McMurray to Peerless Lake. The finished project will be “a key roadway project to connect the province’s northeast and northwest regions,” the budget says.
The provincial deficit is set to drop to $2.4-billion next year and $2-billion in 2027, before provincial legislation requires the government to run a balanced budget.
Said Horner: “We made the difficult decision to run a deficit so that we can direct and target our spending to the top priorities of Albertans.”
