Stakeholders in North East Saskatchewan are about to receive an economic boost as a 21.7 million dollar two year construction project is started on building Highway 55 connecting Nipawin to The Pas into an export corridor to northern Manitoba.  Gateway Keewatin Stakeholders report an Economic Impact Study by Stephen Johnson of Praxis Consulting helped to provide Stakeholder with key information to bring forward to the provinces on the economic and social benefits of having an export highway corridor into Northern Manitoba that connects the community owned Hudson Bay Railway at The Pas and the open Arctic Sea Port at Churchill. The study concluded investing in a 12 month dust free primary weight highway could lead to a 7.2 billion dollar increase to the GDP and 894 million dollars tax for the provinces as well as 1.9 billion dollar tax revenues for the Federal government over 20 years.  Further the social benefits include better access to health care, education and the potential of 12 thousand new direct, in direct and induced jobs.

Carrot River Mayor Roman Charko says this transportation infrastructure comes at a time when we need it the most to export our agriculture, forestry and mining products to global markets.