Bypass will significantly affect the town

Times Reporter

 

It seems as though someone is always talking about the realignment lately and about how it has affected other towns. One thing no one has heard is exactly how Vegreville and other towns have been affected. Paul Ventura is the owner of Canadian Tire and his first store as a Canadian Tire dealer was the Vegreville location in 2000. Vegreville has a highway bypass, which was implemented years ago. 

“It was not as far away from Highway 16 as the proposed bypass for Strathmore but it still had a significant effect on the town,” said Ventura. 

Ventura was in Vegreville for a year and a half, he has talked to a lot of people and when they did the bypass it killed the town. 

“Basically it prevented businesses from growing and expanding including the Canadian Tire there,” said Ventura.  

“I do know that the bypass in Vegreville significantly hurt the town and significantly hurt a lot of the businesses including gas stations, restaurants, that sort of thing.” 

In Lloydminster there was an overpass implemented instead of a bypass. Both towns have roughly the same size Canadian Tire store. 

“I found it very interesting that Lloydminster is doing much better than Vegreville and that has a lot to do with the bypass,” said Ventura. 

Ventura said about 25 to 30 per cent of his business is from people driving by and stopping into the store. He employs between 60 to 75 people and wants to continue growing business here, but said the bypass will hurt the town big time. 

“Yes, they say it’s 10 to 15 years out, but as a business owner, and looking at all the other businesses in town, you’re not going to invest in other businesses coming into town when they see a bypass on the horizon,” said Ventura. 

In an August 13 interview the Minister of Transportation Luke Ouellette said his office was now looking at keeping the bypass close to the town so people would be able to see the highway businesses. 

“Visible and convenient are two different things. I don’t think it’d be a big issue as long as people can still get here conveniently,” said Ventura.  

Ventura would like to see an overpass put into place if anything has to be done. The option of an overpass was presented to Ouellette who said, “We could divide the town in half, make it free flow through town with a couple of overpasses over it. Then there would be two service roads, with an overpass at each end, and then nobody would have to come to the town anyway,” in an interview on July 23. 

Ventura said Lloydminster is thriving because an overpass was put in and people can see all of the businesses and it is convenient for them to stop. 

Because Vegreville was bypassed, it is semi inconvenient for people to stop, and there is only a sign for the town, people are not able to actually see any of the businesses from the highway. According to Ventura, Vegreville could have been a thriving community in Alberta but taking the highway going through it, killed the town. 

“I see the ill effects of that by looking at two businesses, in my case two Canadian Tire businesses, where one is thriving and one is struggling because of the fact there is no traffic,” said Ventura. 

As any business owner knows, traffic is what keeps a business going whether it’s vehicular or foot traffic.  

“I’m very passionate about this because I’ve seen first hand what it did to Vegreville,” said Ventura.