Roads to Resources Program
Encyclopedia
The Roads to Resources Program was initiated by the Progressive Conservative
government of Prime Minister
of Canada
John Diefenbaker
from 1957 to 1963.
The program was intended to complete transportation infrastructure in remote areas of Canada to facilitate easier access to mineral
s and encourage their exploitation.
According to a release on 26 March 1958 from the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resource, roads to be started or completed under the program:
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
government of Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
John Diefenbaker
John Diefenbaker
John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...
from 1957 to 1963.
The program was intended to complete transportation infrastructure in remote areas of Canada to facilitate easier access to mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
s and encourage their exploitation.
According to a release on 26 March 1958 from the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resource, roads to be started or completed under the program:
- Dempster HighwayDempster HighwayThe Dempster Highway, also referred to as Yukon Highway 5 and Northwest Territories Highway 8, is a highway that connects the Klondike Highway in Yukon, Canada to Inuvik, Northwest Territories on the Mackenzie River delta...
, Yukon Highway 5 - the plan was a 170 mile road to the south edge of Eagle Plains, then a fork with one road 70 miles (112.7 km) northwest and another road 160 miles (257.5 km) northeast to Fort McPherson. Target date to complete was 1962, cost $8,000,000. - Nahanni Range RoadNahanni Range RoadThe Nahanni Range Road was completed in the early 1960s from Watson Lake, Yukon along the present alignment of the Robert Campbell Highway to Cantung Junction, thence along the Highway 10 route, across the border into the Northwest Territories to the privately-owned mining town known, confusingly,...
, Yukon Highway 10, plus a section of highway south to Watson Lake that now is part of Yukon Highway 4. - construction of three bridges on the Klondike HighwayKlondike HighwayThe Klondike Highway links the Alaskan coastal town of Skagway to Yukon's Dawson City and its route somewhat parallels that used by prospectors in the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush....
in the Yukon over the Yukon, Pelly and Stewart rivers, at a cost of $3,500,000. - renovation of roadway and bridges to reopen the southern part of the Canol RoadCanol RoadThe Canol Road was part of a project to build a pipeline and a road from Norman Wells, Northwest Territories to Whitehorse, Yukon during World War II. The pipeline no longer exists, but the long Yukon portion of the road is maintained by the Yukon Government during summer months...
as far as Ross River, cost $270,000. - Clinton Creek Road, from west of Dawson to Clinton Creek, cost $500,000, as a branch off the Sixtymile RoadTop of the World HighwayThe Top of the World Highway is a long highway, beginning at a junction with the Taylor Highway near Jack Wade, Alaska traveling east to its terminus at the ferry terminal in West Dawson, on the western banks of the Yukon River. The highway has been in existence since at least 1955 and is only...
. - Great Slave-Great Bear Road: the first stage, from the future location of Enterprise to Yellowknife, 300 miles, to be completed in 1960 at a cost of $10,000,000, plus two major bridges, and either a third bridge or a ferry at the Mackenzie River; the second stage, which was never built, was another 250 miles, at a cost of $5,000,000, from Rae to Sawmill Bay on Great Bear Lake
- hard surfacing of the 24 mile portage road from Fitzgerald to Bell Rock portage, cost $1,500,000 - this was never done
- new 78-mile road from Peace Point through and to the west boundary of Wood Buffalo National Park, cost $2,500,000 - this was intended to tie in with an Alberta government roadway from Fort Vermilion that was never completed to Peace Point; little, if any, of this 78-mile road appears to have ever been built