Letter to Doug Ford – Another Devastating Tragedy on Northern Ontario Highway

December 22, 2025

The Honourable Doug Ford
Premier of Ontario

Legislative Building, Queen’s Park Toronto, ON M7A 1A1

Dear Premier Ford,

photes from FB, added to letter by wawa-news

I am writing to you today following yet another devastating tragedy on Northern Ontario’s highways.

Yesterday, near Opasatika, a fatal collision resulted in the loss of three lives from the same family. This heartbreaking incident was compounded by a prolonged highway closure, once again leaving Northerners stranded, frightened, and without alternatives.

This loss is devastating – and it was preventable.

Highways 11 and 17 are consistently ranked among the most dangerous highways in Canada, yet despite years of warnings and calls for action from Northern communities, your government continues to fail to take meaningful steps to improve safety. These highways are not optional routes — they are lifelines. There are no alternate roads. They are how people access medical care, get to work, deliver essential goods, attend school, and stay connected to family.

Over the past week alone, Highway 11 and 17 have been closed the majority of the time, leaving communities effectively cut off for days. People are afraid to travel. Families are scared. And tragically, people are dying.

A significant contributor to this crisis is the growing presence of inexperienced and inadequately trained transport truck drivers taking dangerous risks on narrow, single-lane highways with no margin for error. This is compounded by weak enforcement and a lack of real accountability for trucking companies that continue to operate negligently.

Trucking companies and drivers must be held accountable. Fines that are treated as the cost of doing business are not enough. Companies that repeatedly violate safety rules, operate unsafe vehicles, or place unqualified drivers on our roads should face severe penalties — including the suspension or revocation of operating privileges. When negligence costs lives, consequences must be real.

Your government has claimed to invest in inspection and enforcement staff, yet the results speak for themselves. These investments have fallen short. Northern Ontarians do not have the safest roads in North America – not even close – and pretending otherwise does nothing to protect lives.

Minister Sarkaria and Minister Pirie have failed to address this ongoing and pressing safety crisis.

Their inaction has had real and deadly consequences. If Minister Sarkaria cannot fulfill his responsibility to ensure public safety on Ontario’s highways, he should step down. Leadership matters, and when leadership fails to protect public safety, accountability must follow.

What is most frustrating is that this issue continues to be treated as partisan. This must stop.

Regardless of political affiliation, municipalities and organizations like FONOM have been calling for change for years. We have brought forward concrete proposals and practical solutions. Every one of them has been ignored or voted down. This is not about politics. It is about lives. It is about families.

It is about doing what is right.

Northern Ontario cannot wait any longer. Immediate action is required to fix driver training and licensing, strengthen enforcement, restore proper oversight of winter maintenance, and ensure trucking companies deliver the safety standards they are required to meet. Every delay risks another family being torn apart.

How many more lives must be lost before this government takes Highways 11 and 17 seriously?

I urge you to act now — before another tragedy occurs.

Guy Bourgouin, MPP
Mushkegowuk-James Bay
cc Hon. George Pirie, Minister of Northern Economic Development and Growth; Hon. Prabmeet Sarkaria, Minister of Transportation

The following information wasn’t with this letter, but has been added by wawa-news so that readers can take action if they choose. 

Brenda Stockton

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