City Profile
Transportation & Utilities
Table of Contents for this page:
Transportation and Utilities
TRANSPORTATION
Grande Prairie has excellent paved highway and air access to major centres in northern and Western Canada, and telecommunications access to the world.
AIRPORTS
The Grande Prairie airport, located 6.5 kilometers west of the downtown centre, is operated and maintained by the Grande Prairie Airport Commission. The airport provides daily scheduled air carrier service, including aircraft refuelling, parking, maintenance and storage. Other services include aircraft and helicopter commercial operations and charters, rental cars, taxi, limousine service and cafeteria amenities. As well, air cargo can be shipped to any part of the world.
Air Canada and West-Jet offer daily flights to major centres in Canada and around the world. Peace Air offers destinations throughout Alberta. Swanberg Air provides direct flights to Calgary and Vancouver.
HIGHWAYS
Building The Alberta Advantage - The North South Trade Corridor
Premier Ralph Klein made the $1.4 billion North-South Trade Corridor (NSTC) Alberta’s top road construction priority. Scheduled for a fall 2007 completion, the NSTC will have a tremendous impact on the Alberta economy. The 1,175 kilometre network of multi-lane highways will provide for the fast, safe and efficient transportation of goods from the British Columbia border near Grande Prairie through Edmonton and Calgary to the CANAMEX Trade Corridor at Coutts on the Montana border. Note: Highway 43 is the portion of this corridor that extends from the British Columbia border to west of Edmonton.The Alberta leg of the CANAMEX (Canada-America-Mexico) highway will link the province to the U.S. and emerging markets as far south as Mexico, strengthening Alberta’s position as western Canada’s distribution hub for retail, wholesale and manufacturing sectors.
Improvements to Alberta’s roads include the twinning of 550 km of highway to create divided four lane highways, the extension of Edmonton’s Anthony Henday Drive and improvements on Calgary’s Deerfoot Trail to increase free flow.
Highway 43 also goes west to Dawson Creek, BC and the start of the Alaska Highway going north, and the John Hart Highway going south to Prince George and the ports of Prince Rupert and Vancouver.
Highways 2, north of Grande Prairie, and 35, the Mackenzie Highway, lead to the Northwest Territories.
Highway 40 heads due south from Grande Prairie to connect with the Yellowhead Highway just east of the entrance to Jasper National Park. Paving Highway 40 was completed in July 1996.
RAILWAYS
Alberta RailNet Inc. provides freight service to Grande Prairie and the Peace Country. The railway links Grande Prairie to the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Churchill, Thunder Bay, and Hay River in the Northwest Territories. For more information about Railnet please see their web site at http://www.albertarailnet.com/index.html
BUS SERVICES
Greyhound provides regularly scheduled passenger and courier service to Grande Prairie's bus depot. A number of charter bus companies also operate out of Grande Prairie.
Grande Prairie Public Transit information can be found by clicking here.
UTILITIES
Natural Gas & Electricity
Regulated Rate Providers for Community of: Grande Prairie
For information on Alberta's electricity and natural gas retail regulations, click here.
Telephone
Telus, Grande Prairie Office: (780) 538-8511
Telecommunications, Internet and On-line Services
Several internet service providers offer facilities and services in Grande Prairie.
Aquatera Utilities Inc.
- Water and Sanitary Sewer
- Waste Collection Services
- Recyclilng
- Landfill Operations
For information on Aquatera's services, please visit their website at
www.aquatera.ca