The formal announcement that a portion of Highway 540, between the village of Kagawong to beyond Ice Lake will be rebuilt and resurfaced this year is good news.
What is definitely not good news is the fact that a Ministry of Transportation (MTO) spokesperson told this newspaper that this rebuilt section of Highway 540 will not include paved shoulders suitable for bicycle lanes.
This is the same initial response that the dedicated group that comprises Manitoulin Island Cycling Advocates (MICA) had about six years ago when they learned that part of Highway 6 on Manitoulin was to be rebuilt and so requested the inclusion of paved shoulders for cyclists as part of the rebuilding process.
Then, as now, the initial response was an unqualified ‘no’!
Municipal support, citizen support and the unflagging efforts of the MICA folks turned that ‘no’ into a ‘yes,’ a happy announcement made by then-Minister of Transportation Kathleen Wynne.
That section of Highway 6, from its intersection with Highway 542 through to 10 Mile Point, was completed with the additional metre of pavement added on either side of the road.
The next significant piece of roadwork on Manitoulin took place last year when Highway 551, between M’Chigeeng and Mindemoya, was rebuilt and resurfaced. This was done complete with metre-wide paved shoulders on either side of the roadway proper and with white lines marking off these sections from the lanes which automobile and truck traffic would occupy.
Yes, MICA solicited letters of support for the shoulder paving of Highway 551, but there was no adversarial engagement in this most recent case in comparison to the original Highway 6 controversy.
So here we go again, with an official ‘no’ to this particular addition to a section of Manitoulin Island’s major east-west highway artery.
The person who eventually put her stamp of approval on the addition of paved shoulders on Highway 6 is now this province’s premier and, with Ms. Wynne in this new capacity at Queen’s Park, the decision to add paved shoulders to last year’s construction was a relatively uneventful event.
It comes as a surprise, then, that the next section of provincial highway on Manitoulin Island slated for improvement will, at this moment, come up short in the matter of paved shoulders.
The MICA organization, through its significant efforts, has made Manitoulin Island more and more of a tourist destination for cyclists.
In no small measure, this is because they can boast through their advertising campaigns that Manitoulin Island is bike-friendly and will become only more so.
Perhaps the current Minister of Transportation should confer with the premier on the matter of the inclusion of paved shoulders on the soon-to-be rebuilt portion of Highway 540 as it was with enthusiasm that Ms. Wynne announced the change in her then-ministry’s plans for Highway 6.
It is not practical to add paved shoulders following the rebuilding and resurfacing of a highway; it must be done in one piece in order to stand up to weather changes, frost heaves and snowploughs.
It is important that this section of Highway 540 be rebuilt with paved shoulders, suitable for cycling traffic, in order to set the tone for the eventual improvement of the rest of this important highway, from Little Current to Gore Bay, and hopefully, to Meldrum Bay as well.
MICA will mount a lobby on the issue; municipalities and citizens will support it, just as they did before. It just makes common sense.
It is, however, unfortunate that the whole process must be gone through once more, especially since the Highway 551 paved shoulder addition was a relatively benign issue.
Manitoulin Island is comprised of a series of highway loops. It is an ideal spot for recreational cycling. This is a tourist attraction and activity that will only grow and thrive here over time.
The premier of Ontario, in a previous role, came to think this way as well and it is to her good judgment that this issue must be brought.
