Municipal leaders from across the North Shore are on their way to the annual Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference with thoughts of highway safety and road maintenance on their agenda.
During their meeting with Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney, Terrace Bay Mayor Paul Malashewski wants to address the pending acquisition of land that is intended for a new highway rest stop near the town.
"This has been probably two years now and we would just like an update on where they are going with that,” Malashewski said.
Malashewski also wants to address medical transportation services with the minister, which is an essential service for patients needing to get from the Thunder Bay hospital to areas along the north shore.
“The van is coming up for replacement. We’ve put a lot of miles on the vehicle over the course of four and coming up for replacement. We’ll be looking for funding once again to replace that medical vehicle,” Malashewski said.
Nipigon Mayor Suzanne Kukko wants to address the provincial requirements of highway safety.
Since the province announced enhanced snow clearing standards that Highway 11 and Highway 17 must be cleared to bare pavement within 12 hours from the end of a snow event in late 2022, there have been multiple fatalities in highway crashes in the Nipigon area.
“We’ll be making sure that the Ministry hears our opinions about that, and we just want to know what’s being done to make sure that the contractor is being made accountable and reaching the criteria that the province has set out,” Kukko said.
Kukko also noted that she would like to see the allotted time for highway plowing be lower from 12 hours to eight hours after the snowstorm.
Greenstone Mayor James McPherson wants to ensure that their service roads are maintained. McPherson said these access roads were once serviced by the Ministry of Forestry, but has now been left unmaintained due to the lack of harvesting wood in the area.
“Those roads are still used for recreation and tourism, for forest fire fighting, and it’s not a one-time use for these roads. So, I want to encourage funding for that,” said McPherson.
