Aboriginal chiefs, MP want all-weather roads

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This article was published 23/03/2010 (5685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Faced with melting winter roads that have left remote northern communities stranded, aboriginal chiefs and a northern MP are pushing for all-weather roads.

But at what cost?

Well, start with the fact an all-weather road is a heck of a lot more expensive than the seasonal winter roads that run over swamps, muskeg and frozen lakes. This year the province paid more than $9 million to open and maintain the 2,200-kilometre winter road system to 23 communities.

According to a 2001 report compiled by the province, it was estimated it would cost between $500,000 to $700,000 per kilometre to replace winter roads with all-weather roads for a total of more than $1 billion.

Barry Prentice, a professor at the University of Manitoba’s Transport Institute, said those figures have ballooned to cost about $1 million per kilometre for a gravel road for a total of $2 billion.

"The issue is we don’t have that money," Prentice said.

"I don’t think the federal government will do this or they’d have a road to Nunavut already. How is that going?

"In a perfect world we’d have roads to communities everywhere, but I don’t think the money is there."

But the province’s native leaders have already done their own number-crunching as they amp up political pressure to get the roads they want built and which they argue Ottawa and the province should fund.

"If we can build a floodway to protect Winnipeggers from one in 700 chance of flood, why can’t we protect 40,000 rural Manitobans from something that has become an annual crisis?" Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Ron Evans said in a statement on Monday.

"The devastating effects of climate change are no longer in the future. They are our reality. We must protect all Manitobans now."

Evans’ call was echoed by grand chief David Harper of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, who is watching the federal government paying to airlift freight to communities left short when the winter roads were closed earlier than normal. Harper said all the winter roads need to be converted into all-weather roads because "we need to have light at the end of the tunnel."

Last week in question period, NDP MP Niki Ashton asked the government to help fund all-weather roads to remote Manitoba communities.

Instead of dismissing it, Infrastructure Minister John Baird said he would talk to cabinet about both all-weather roads and airlifting supplies to the effected communities.

On Monday, a spokesman for Baird said the minister is definitely willing to work with Manitoba on the issue of all-weather roads for remote communities.

James Kusie, director of issues management in Baird’s office, said in 2007, Manitoba sent a letter to Baird’s predecessor as Infrastructure minister, Lawrence Cannon, seeking support specifically for the all-weather road network on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. Cannon responded saying the province could submit specific proposals for funding under Canada-Manitoba infrastructure agreements.

"To date we haven’t received any request," said Kusie.

Harper said there are costs that are being paid now that would be eliminated by having all-weather roads.

Harper said just this week he saw one example when a woman needing kidney dialysis was given a $300-helicopter ride to get to the air strip in Island Lake.

"We see things like that everyday — why not just build a road?"

Eric Robinson, Manitoba’s minister of aboriginal and northern affairs, said the province is building an all-weather road system — it’s just doing it slowly as money becomes available.

Robinson, who is responsible for the East Side Road Authority, which is upgrading a road to Bloodvein First Nation and building a road to Berens River First Nation, said "we’re learning more and more about the unreliability of the winter road system.

"What our government is doing is building an East Side road project in pieces. It is our government funding the all-weather road system… there is no federal money.

"We could do it faster with the help of others… we can’t just let these isolated communities hang like this."

Glen Sanderson, a winter roads policy analyst with the AMC, said a permanent road system has become even more feasible during the last decade because the province has moved about 600 kilometres of the winter road system from lakes, rivers and creeks onto land.

 

— with files from Mia Rabson

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Manitoba’s winter roads:

More than 38,000 Manitobans in 24 communities are linked by winter roads. That’s up from about 25,000 people in a 2001 provincial report. The same report predicted the population would double in about 20 years.

About 2,500 truckloads of goods travel across the winter roads ever year.

The winter road system was created by private construction companies in the 1950s to get freight to northern communities by using track dozers pulling a string of sleighs.

The province took over the winter road system in 1971, upgrading it to allow truck access.

The province committed $800 million over 5 years in 2007 to pay for "maintenance and preservation of infrastructure and annual construction of the winter road network."

The winter road system has been open:

Feb. 17 to March 25, 2006.

Feb. 14 to March 21, 2007.

Feb. 14 to March 25, 2008.

Feb. 2 to March 24, 2009.

Feb. 12 to March 15, 2010.

In 1998, the winter road system closed on Feb. 27, after unseasonably warm weather.

Source: Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation