NORTHERN ONTARIO—While both the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) and Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Michael Mantha welcome the provincial government’s recent announcement that bare pavement on Northern highways (11 and 17) will now be required within 12 hours of a winter storm, MPP Mantha says it fails to get to the root of safety concerns on Northern highways.
“As the official opposition, we have had to push the government every step of the way towards getting strong safety standards on Highways 11 and 17,” said MPP Mantha. “Now the government has created a new clearing standard to avoid applying the same eight-hour clearing requirement to the Trans Canada highways as highways in the south.”
The government has reduced the target time for clearing Highways 11 and 17 from 16 hours to 12 hours after a snowfall.
“This is absolutely a step in the right direction, but protecting Northerners should not be a partisan issue,” said MPP Mantha. “It is only about keeping travellers safe. We want to see the government give our highways the same priority as the 400-series and ensure that the contracts for snow removal are being fulfilled. Anything less will not get to the root cause of the problem.”
FONOM is applauding the provincial government’s recent announcement.
“FONOM would like to thank Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney and the provincial government for making this critical change,” said FONOM president Danny Whalen. “Highways in Northern Ontario connect our communities and having highways 17 and 11 cleared quicker after the minimum standard is reached is important for road safety.”
“Our government is the first to create a new highway level of service that will ensure Highways 11 and 17 are cleared faster, while improving road safety for drivers in the North,” said MTO Minister Mulroney. “Ontario already has nation-leading standards in place when it comes to winter maintenance, and this builds on our government’s broader efforts to ensure we keep it that way.”
The new standard for clearing snow follows a detailed technical review of winter maintenance operations of Highways 11 and 17 and analysis of data from the winter maintenance pilot from the past two winter seasons on these highways.
In addition to the new standard, Ontario has taken several other actions to enhance its winter maintenance on Ontario highways, including: increased use of underbody plows that have better performance in removal of snowpacks as compared to conventional plows; increased proactive use of anti-icing liquids before storms to make it easier to clear snow; building an additional 24 road weather information stations (14 in Northern Ontario) to respond to changing winter weather conditions faster and more effectively; enhancing 14 rest areas as a safe place to stop during the winter season, including rehabilitation of the rest areas along highways 11, 17 and 599; moving ahead with the first-ever 2+1 highway pilot (north of North Bay) in North America to help make roads even safer.
“FONOM will continue to work with the (MTO) and provincial government on matters of importance to our member municipalities,” said Mr. Whalen. “The FONOM board will continue this advocacy during the Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference this January.”
