Dan Belisle has been driving the roads of northern Ontario in summer time and winter for years and has by no means seen them as treacherous or harmful as they’re now.
The 73-year-old retired auto vendor from Cochrane, Ont., mentioned the variety of deadly crashes has gotten so unhealthy he worries about his grandchildren getting behind the wheel within the north.
“I used to be on the highway heaps and I by no means feared driving like I do now — it’s very scary,” he mentioned. “The federal government has to have a plan.”
Ontario’s snap election — working for 4 freezing February weeks — has catapulted the problem of roads and highway security to the highest of the agenda in northern Ontario.
Simply earlier than the marketing campaign kicked off, on Jan. 23, one other crash was recorded close to Ignace, Ont.
Round 3:30 a.m. that day, two transport vans crashed in an incident that killed three folks and closed Freeway 17 for hours. The deadly collision close to Ignacve, which is house to roughly 1,300 folks, wasn’t new to the tiny northern city.
“Throughout northern Ontario, these types of catastrophes and harmful conditions do happen on highways,” Jake Pastore, outreach communications for the City of Ignace, acknowledged.
In whole final 12 months, there have been 21 deadly collisions within the distant space — nearly all of them, 13, concerned vans. General, there have been 213 crashes on the route that injured folks throughout 2024.
These numbers are roughly in keeping with averages on these northern roads previously 5 years.
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“It’s unhealthy — and it’s not getting any higher,” mentioned Belisle, whose Cochrane group is positioned virtually 1,000 km east of Ignace, close to Timmins. “There doesn’t appear to be a plan to do something.”
With a particular northern debate in North Bay, Ont., final week the problem seems to have the eye of the province’s political events. Progressive Conservative Chief Doug Ford, the NDP’s Marit Stiles, Liberal Bonnie Crombie and Inexperienced Chief Mike Schreiner all referenced their plans for highway security in the course of the televised occasion.
Stiles pledged to widen Highways 11, 17 and 69 and Schreiner agreed, saying divided highways will enhance security.
“As premier, I’m going to carry winter highway upkeep again in home and again underneath public authorities management, provincial management,” Stiles mentioned.
Crombie pledged to offer extra sustainable funding to municipalities to have the ability to spend cash on highway upkeep and security initiatives.
Ford defended his authorities’s report over the past seven years. He pointed to a mission increasing Freeway 11/17 in northwestern Ontario and a $600-million funding to restore and broaden highways. He additionally dedicated to twinning Freeway 69 between Sudbury and Parry Sound, Ont., the one non-divided portion of that highway between Toronto and Sudbury. A number of the land wanted for that belongs to 2 First Nations.
“We’re going to assist be certain it’s a two-lane freeway on either side, and so they’re 100 per cent behind us,” Ford mentioned of the First Nations.
In Ignace, Pastore mentioned locals have been engaged on, and calling for, options for years.
“What we’ve been advocating for for a few years, alongside many northern Ontario communities, together with Sault Ste. Marie and among the others — Thunder Bay, North Bay — is actually elevated monitoring of speeds, elevated security zones, after all the four-laning of the highways,” he mentioned.
Pastore mentioned highways 400, 11 and 17 had all seen “site visitors has elevated considerably due to transportation” and needs to be expanded to 4 lanes.
“I believe these are points which are going to stay very excessive on the agenda, alongside financial improvement and well being and a few of these different vital priorities for the province,” he added.
“However it doesn’t matter who’s working the federal government, we wish to ensure that public security and the security of our residents.”
The north stays a key space for the PCs, NDP and Liberals. Ford is about to journey for a northern tour on Wednesday, whereas Crombie has visited Thunder Bay and Stiles launched her well being care platform in Sault Ste. Marie.
In 2022, the NDP received seven of its 28 seats in northern Ontario and the PCs received 4 seats past cottage nation.
Even with the eye, Belisle stays skeptical that there’s actually a plan to alter the deadly highways he and his household should drive.
“The dedication for protected roads in northern Ontario is non-existent,” he mentioned.
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