Swale heritage status would ‘change things’ for freeway

Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Highways isn’t sure what the impact would be on the Saskatoon Freeway project if natural grasslands in the city’s northeast corner are given a protective heritage designation.

But it is clear there will be some sort of consequence.

“If that application is successful, it obviously changes things,” said Steve Shaheen, a spokesperson for the ministry.

Saskatoon’s heritage advisory board asked a city committee on Monday to designate both the Northeast Swale and Small Swale as heritage lands, which would protect the land from alterations.

The swales are large natural grassland and wetlands, home to endangered species of plants and animals. A group of advocates successfully lobbied for altered street lighting along the swale’s borders, and for lower speed limits along the McOrmond Drive extension that opened in the fall.

The Saskatoon Freeway, which began planning in 2001, is set to be built through swale lands to provide drivers with a way to bypass the city. The project is currently in a functional planning stage.

Lenore Swystun, chair of the heritage advisory board, emphasized to reporters on Monday that the heritage designation request isn’t designed to stop the highway from being built.

“This isn’t an ‘either-or’ (situation), it’s an ‘and’ (situation),” she said. “We have development going on in the area, we have roads that have been constructed, we have just opened a new bridge that crossed the swale, so obviously those things aren’t being stopped.”

A policy analyst from the NSBA, a group representing Saskatoon businesses, has raised concerns that a heritage designation could “be the death” of the freeway.

However, Shaheen said the province isn’t sure how the project would be affected by a successful heritage application.

“It’s hard to deal in hypotheticals,” he told 650 CKOM on Wednesday.

He noted the department is already committed to doing extensive environmental assessments of the highway’s proposed route, which still has to be narrowed down.

“We’re committed to doing it in an environmentally sustainable manner,” he said.

Shaheen added the province has worked with heritage groups before, citing the discovery of an archaeological site along Highway 7 during a twinning project. The construction work stopped for several years while the dig was completed, but the highway was eventually completed.

City councillors did not vote on taking action on the heritage request, but are instead looking for additional information on what it would mean to expand heritage designations beyond specific buildings.