I think most major Alberta highways weren't high graded and 'blacktopped' until the 1920's to 40's. I remember a few Highways that weren't paved until the 70's, close to Edmonton too.
This is an excerpt from the Alberta Culture website.
" By 1920, seven years after Henry Ford’s assembly line had made automobiles widely available, cars were no longer a novel sight on Alberta’s roads. Between 1921 and 1930, the number of cars in Alberta increased from 40,000 to 100,000, and the proportion of rural car owners doubled. As the number of drivers increased, so, too, did the accidents, collisions and deaths, causing the demands for improved and increased roads and highways to escalate."
http://history.alberta.ca/energyheri...nt/paving.aspx
This suggests that most highways didn't get paved until during the dirty thirties.