When I was just a young lad back home, there was a lovely lady who lived down the street from my family.\u00a0 She was always bright and cheerful.\u00a0 My brothers and I used to say she was old, but looking back, she was likely younger than I am now. But, as they say, it is all in the eye of the beholder.<\/p>\n
I was thinking of her the other evening when I was out for a walk to clear my mind after a tough day in the Legislature.\u00a0 As I walked briskly along, I was trying to decide whether or not I was enjoying the onset of the winter season.\u00a0 It was then that something our kindly neighbour said years ago came to mind.\u00a0 I remembered one day when my Mom asked her in passing how she liked the weather.\u00a0 Our neighbour smiled and said, \u201cWell, since I can\u2019t do anything about the weather, I decided a long time ago that I may as well try to find something good with whatever we get.\u00a0 That way, my day goes better, and the time passes faster.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is one thing Northerners know is that winter comes every year, like it or not.\u00a0 Personally, I choose to make the most of it and enjoy the frozen lakes, icy columns forming on highway rock cuts, sledding and watching kids having fun making snow angels, snow forts and snowmen.<\/p>\n
As much as most Northerners love the winter months in general, we also know that we have to be prepared and use common sense. So while we can love it, we also know enough to give winter the respect it deserves.\u00a0 Long-time Northerners know that, first and foremost, we have to use common sense when set out travelling on our highways.\u00a0 Since I was first elected a decade ago, winter highway maintenance is still one of the most common issues my Northern NDP colleagues have to deal with year after year.<\/p>\n
After dealing with Ontario winter highways for over a hundred years, you\u2019d think that the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) would have what keeping our roads clear and safe down to a science. But, unfortunately, such is not the case.<\/p>\n
Days ago, NDP MPP John Vanthof (Timiskaming-Cochrane) raised the issue of winter highway maintenance on behalf of all Northern NDP MPPs.\u00a0 In the House, John blasted the Ford Conservatives for failing to keep Northerners safe on our highways.\u00a0 He pointed out that just recently, portions of Highways 11 and 17 were shut down for over 24 hours during Northern Ontario\u2019s first snowfall.\u00a0\u00a0 The winter accident and death toll have officially started.<\/p>\n
John Told the Premier and Transportation Minister what it is like to travel on Northern highways. \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely bone-chilling terrifying to be on a northern highway that hasn\u2019t been cleared. In Northern Ontario, there are no places to park, no places to stop, and you\u2019ve already been on the road for several hours when you find out the road is closed.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s right.<\/p>\n
Families in Northern communities depend on having safe highways to travel to school, work and medical appointments.\u00a0 Travelling is a fact of life for us.\u00a0 Northerners need and deserve to know that the roads they need to travel on will be clear and safe this winter.\u00a0 All of us want our loved ones back home safely each day.<\/p>\n
The Ford government has had over three years to make our highways safe. The NDP presented the Conservatives with a viable plan that would vastly improve winter travel on Highways 11 & 17.\u00a0 Those two highways are our transportation lifeline because they also bring us food, medicine, gas, and many other essentials.\u00a0 Those two highways are two of our main travel routes, just like all of the 400 series in Southern Ontario.\u00a0 Contractors are required to have bare pavement on class 1 highways within 8 hours of the end of a winter storm.\u00a0 Highways 11 & 17 are class 2 highways and don\u2019t have to show bare pavement for 16 hours from the storm\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
For these reasons, New Democrats proposed legislation that would upgrade the two highways to be class-1 for winter maintenance equal to the 400 series.\u00a0 But unfortunately, the Ford Conservatives would have none of it and voted solidly against the bill. They outright ignored their own MTO winter maintenance statistics as well as statistics from the OPP.\u00a0 The statistics showed that deaths involving commercial vehicles on Hwys 11 &17 have risen by 40 percent.\u00a0 The government\u2019s callous response to Northern Ontarians was that those roads are \u2018good enough.\u2019<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n My office received complaints about a troubling winter storm response situation in Dubreuville recently. Weather conditions made the closure of Hwy 17 necessary, which is at times unavoidable.\u00a0 However, there was a definite breakdown in communications.\u00a0 The municipality and residents of Dubreuilville were not notified of the closure.\u00a0 Community members left town via Hwy 519 and were taken aback that 17 had been closed.\u00a0 This put travellers unnecessarily at risk.<\/p>\n As I said, here in the North, our highways are our lifelines.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have multiple alternate routes that we can take to get around.\u00a0 Contractual requirements, procedures, regulations and saving a buck all have their place when it comes to keeping our roads clear and safe in winter.\u00a0 But above everything else, doing what is necessary to keep our transportation lifelines open and ensuring all travellers get to the destination safely day in and day out trumps everything.<\/p>\n Northern Ontarians need and deserve better winter maintenance service than we have had to tolerate for years.<\/p>\n