With winter off to deadly start on northern Ont. highways, leaders say province shortchanged region | 24CA News
Winter has solely simply arrived in northern Ontario, however thus far the season is proving to be a lethal one on highways within the area, elevating questions over provincial funding for northern infrastructure.
In northwestern Ontario alone, 5 deadly collisions have occurred this winter on three separate northern highways, killing seven.
“It’s impossible to see, and then you have some drivers … that like to go at screamingly fast paces during those snowstorms,” mentioned Suzanne Kukko, mayor of Nipigon, which is a small city on the Trans Canada Highway in northwestern Ontario, about 115 kilometres from Thunder Bay.
“It’s scary,” Kukko mentioned. “You’ve got the rock cut, you’ve got those faster drivers to deal with, you’ve got the slippery roads and you’re sort of out of control fishtailing a bit because of those conditions.”
Among the seven individuals who died, three had been because of two completely different crashes on highways 11 and 17 that occurred on Nov. 29 close to Nipigon.
“It was the first kind of snow event that we’ve had of the year, and this is what happened. You know, it’s terrifying,” Kukko mentioned.
Faster snow clearing
In November, the province promised to enhance its commonplace for clearing snow on highways 17 and 11. Both highways have to be totally cleared 12 hours after a winter storm, which is 4 hours sooner than the earlier commonplace.
Highway 17 connects Kenora, in northwestern Ontario, to Renfrew, within the Ottawa Valley. Highway 11 begins in Barrie and heads north to Matheson, in northern Ontario, earlier than turning west previous Thunder Bay to Rainy River, Ont.
In addition to a sooner snow clearing commonplace for each highways, the province will even enhance winter freeway upkeep with extra underbody plows, that are higher at eradicating snowpack, and elevated use of anti-icing liquids earlier than snowstorms.
“This is admirable and we welcome all those improvements for the clearing standards. But what we want to know is … how they’re assuring us that these standards are being met, ” Kukko mentioned.
In January, the Rural Ontario Municipalities Association will maintain its annual convention, and Kukko mentioned she suspects freeway security will likely be a high precedence, with hopes of clearing up the lingering questions and points round protecting northern roads secure.
Kukko provides that having clear highways is not only about security. Since Highway 17 is a significant cross-country hall, freeway closures would imply delaying shipments of products throughout Canada.
“It affects the whole country, it affects the economy, it affects businesses as well,” she mentioned. “My son and his friends couldn’t get to high school the other day because the buses couldn’t get into town from the highway because of the lineup of the transports,” she mentioned.
In an announcement to 24CA News, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation mentioned the federal government acknowledges that the winter months pose vital challenges for drivers in northern Ontario.
“We will continue to work closely with our contractors to ensure they have the equipment and materials to keep our roads safe during winter weather and storms, including returning highways back to bare pavement four hours faster than before,” that assertion reads.
$158-million tasks deferred in 2019
As officers in communities like Nipigon increase issues over freeway circumstances, the NDP can be elevating the difficulty at Queen’s Park, particularly after a latest auditor basic report discovered Ontario’s Transportation Ministry reallocated $158 million initially deliberate for 2 freeway building tasks in northern Ontario to southern Ontario.
The report present in 2019 the ministry proposed deferring six freeway growth tasks that had been beforehand permitted, and really helpful funding 4 freeway tasks recognized as authorities priorities, regardless that these tasks had been ranked as a decrease precedence by technical and engineering workers.
The audit additionally discovered that two of the six deferred tasks permitted for building concerned widening and repaving sections of Highway 11/17 and and Highway 587 to Pearl Creek, and the widening of Highway 11/17 and Red Rock Road 9 to Coughlin Road.
These tasks, nonetheless, had been finally permitted for funding as a part of the 2020/21 10-year capital plan, based on the auditor basic’s report. The ministry of transportation mentioned it agrees with the really helpful actions within the audit.
NDP MPPs Lise Vaugeois and Michael Mantha have pressed the federal government on the diversion of tens of millions of {dollars} from freeway infrastructure within the North, accusing Premier Doug Ford of constructing “multi-billion-dollar roads for his buddies.”
“Shortchanging the North has serious consequences,” mentioned Vaugeois, MPP for Thunder Bay-Superior North in response to the deferral of those northern tasks.
“Highways 11 and 17 merge together just outside Nipigon and both highways were shut down for 36 hours [in November], cutting off all traffic, including thousands of trucks, from being able to cross Canada,” reads the assertion by Vaugeois, in a launch issued by the NDP.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation calls the NDP claims inaccurate, including that tasks in northern Ontario are transferring ahead and says the federal government has invested extra within the area than any earlier provincial authorities.
