The roadways that connect communities across Northwestern Ontario were a common theme that many regional municipal leaders had top of their mind during a provincial conference this week.
Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association president Wendy Landry said highways and transportation were among the topics brought forward during meetings this week with provincial ministers at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference this week in Toronto.
Landry said every one of her colleagues had their own list of topics they wanted to discuss with provincial government officials, from their economy to infrastructure, health care to policing, housing and immigration.
However, between each rural area, residents of northern Ontario are connected by the same systems of roads and highways. Even then, discussion around transportation is a diverse topic.
For example, there is no simple solution to ensure that all highways are safe and maintained.
“It’s really a complicated conversation,” Landry said.
Landry said Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney was receptive to the concerns of municipal leaders, who expressed that they would like to see a continuation of highway twining and a further decrease to the time standards for snow clearing after a storm.
Another part of the conversation is the length of time it takes to reopen highways after they are closed.
“That’s something we have been discussing with the OPP. What people don’t realize is that when there is an accident, you have to call in a special team to come in and do the investigation. Depending on where that scene happens to be, that could put a couple of hours to bring them into the accident. And then, depending if there is a fatality, that could cause more time,” Landry said.
Addressing adequate road maintenance was at the forefront of the conversation, the ministry’s planned initiatives are committed to enhancing their truck driver training, as well as, contractors are de-icing roads along with plowing.
Nevertheless, staffing shortage is something that needs to be taken into consideration.
In the Municipality of Greenstone, municipal officials report that they have seen a 25 per cent turnover rate in its public works department since the start of the construction of the Greenstone mine. These shortages include contractors for snow removal.
Staff shortages among the private and public sectors are not much different. Both are struggling to recruit employees. The difference between the two is that the private sector can provide a wage that incentivizes employment.
“One of the things we talked about is making the maintenance work a more attractive job. We compete with mines; we compete with high-paying jobs. It’s not a very attractive job to do, to be honest, to be on-call to go plow highways and be in charge of highway maintenance. So, one of the ways we discuss is to increase the wages to make the job more attractive, so people are not necessarily going to mines and maybe they would consider that role,” Landry said.
Ultimately these factors all play into transportation, but another factor the public should consider is that they are responsible for their own safety while on the road.
“I know everything there is a highway accident everyone like to blame the highways maintenance but the reality is we live in Northwestern Ontario. People have to drive according to the weather and sometimes people don’t do that. Sometimes people should stay home instead of driving on the highway,” said Landry.
