queensparkNickel Belt MPP France Gélinas rose in the legislature on Tuesday afternoon to make the following comments regarding winter road maintenance to the North of Sudbury.

“On our first day back in the Legislature, I want to talk about winter road maintenance. At the north end of my riding are the communities of Ivanhoe Lake and Foleyet, both of them on Highway 101, which is goes between Chapleau and Timmins. For some reason, some of Highway 101 is classified as level 2 and some of it is classified as level 3. What does that mean? It means that anyone driving from Ivanhoe or Foleyet to Chapleau or Timmins, or vice versa, will drive on clear pavement for a while, then snow-covered pavement for a while, then clear pavement again. This erratic highway cleaning pattern makes the trip really dangerous.

But it gets worse, Speaker, in beautiful Gogama, only three kilometres off of Highway 144. The snow-plowing equipment for the 144 is located in Gogama, but the road that connects the community to Highway 144 does not get cleaned. Listen to this, Speaker: The snowplow drives the three kilometres with its plow up, then gets to 144 and puts the plow down. There is no high school in Gogama. Every morning, the students do the one-way 112-kilometre trip to go to Timmins, and yes, you guessed it, they start off on a road that is not plowed.

I don’t know who dreams up these things, but they make no sense. They need to be fixed so that the people of northern Ontario can feel secure on our highways.”

Gélinas’ riding of Nickel Belt includes hundreds of kilometers of two lane undivided highways. The Minister of Transportation agreed to look into the matter.