LAC LA BICHE - Highway 36 is one of the province's longest highways, stretching 626 kilometres. The most southern endpoint of the roadway — named Veterans' Memorial Highway since 2005 — is the village of Warner, just 20 kilometres from the Coutts border crossing into the United States. The highway's northern limit is the hamlet of Lac La Biche, for now.
There are continuing thoughts about extending the northern reach of Highway 36, taking over portions of Highway 881 north of Lac La Biche, says a local elected official.
On March 3, Lac La Biche County Coun.Lorin Tkachuk will be driving down to the halfway-point of the north-south connector for the Highway 36 Veterans Memorial Highway Association meeting in Castor.
The association meets only a few times a year, inviting community representatives along the route to discuss tourism and economic along the highway. The idea of increasing the northern reach of the highway could again be a topic, says Tkachuk, who has been part of the same discussion over his term-and-a-half on municipal council. While Lac La Biche County council has not appointed an official council member to the Veterans' Memorial Highway Association since 2020, Tkachuk is a current member of the Alberta Hub Committee, a regional group focused on northeast Alberta transportation, tourism and economic development.
He says Highway 36 is a transportation link to several other highways and economic area of the northeast that are part of the Alberta Hub mandate, including Highway 28, 63 and 881. Tkachuk says there has been discussion through Alberta Hub about re-numbering northern portions of Highway 881 to 36.
"There was also conversation about having 881 potentially renumbered as Highway 36 to continue all the way to Fort McMurray," he said, adding that much more discussion and data-collection would have to be done with provincial officials before anything official happened. "There's been some reception for the provincial government on that, but to be honest, the last I heard it had kind of fell off and it wasn't a priority any more."
Tkachuk said he would be willing to see if it was something the Veterans' Memorial association would re-visit, but said it hasn't been a hot-topic with recent provincial officials.
I"m not going to make any promises that anything is going to come out of it, because it's been a long lobbying effort from a lot of communities. Not to say that nothing could change — but as provincial governments have changed, it gets more attention and less attention."
According to the Veterans' Memorial Highway Association web-page, former County of St. Paul Reeve Steve Upham is listed as a vice chairperson of the association. Upham hasn't been in the municipal role since 2021.
Lac La Biche County pays $800 a year to the association for an annual membership.
Lac La Biche County Deputy Mayor Kevin Pare said that although the association may not have a focus that is specific to only the Lakeland region, it is important to have a voice connected to all the kilometres that link communities along the route.
"I think any lobbying effort, or any meeting that is happening that is pertaining to roads and highways in our region, that we should be at the table. Whether it's talking or listening, I think Lac La Biche County should have a representative at that table," said Pare.
Costs associated with attending the March 3 meeting were estimated between $800 and $1,000 for mileage, subsistence and meeting attendance. Those costs will come from the council's operating budget.
