CAT LAKE — Several winter road construction projects have received provincial funding, and one First Nations council manager says those corridors continue to be crucial lifelines.
Jonathan Salo is the technical unit manager at Windigo First Nations Council. The organization provides a number of social, economic development and other services to seven Indigenous communities, most of which are remote.
“Just from a cost perspective, like the costs for goods and materials in our communities is, I would say, not fathomable for most people,” he said. “I know there’s a lot of complaints about the cost in grocery stores and the cost of fuel and gas for everyone, but it’s definitely far worse and far more expensive in our communities.”
That cost, he said, jumps even more when something is transported in by plane. He pointed to fuel, where a truck can haul 30,000 litres for about the same price as it would take a plane to bring its 5,000 litre limit.
Other things, Salo said, simply are too big or too heavy to come in via air, making the road network essential.
“There’s a lot of goods and materials, especially for construction, for houses, for even servicing those houses, that you can’t bring that material up on a plane, you need to bring it up on the road — it’s too long, it’s too heavy,” he said. “And without that, basically our communities can’t operate or maintain their community.”
“And they definitely can’t have any new development, so it is an absolute lifeline and without it, I would say the already poor conditions would become even worse.”
The province recently announced $10.7 million through the bridges and culverts stream of its winter roads program over the next two years for a number of projects, including the construction and upgrading of water-crossing infrastructure across the northern winter roads network. Winter roads are seasonal corridors spanning thousands of kilometres where permanent roads and highways don’t run, and connect remote First Nations to each other and to the provincial highway system in winter.
The funding, Ontario said in a media release, will “help remote and Indigenous communities access essential goods and services, connect to jobs and create economic opportunities.”
“In remote northern communities, a reliable winter transportation network is key to boosting economic growth and connecting residents to the goods and services they need,” George Pirie, Ontario’s Minister of Northern Economic Development and Growth, was quoted as saying. “Building a reliable winter roads network in the north is one more way our government is supporting stronger, more resilient and self-reliant communities.”
Of the announced funding, a total of just over $3.4 million is going to Windigo. A project to construct modular bridges over a pair of river crossings on the winter road connecting Pickle Lake (which is accessed by Highway 599) to Cat Lake received just over $3.1 million.
Currently and historically, Salo said everything from packed snow and ice to felled trees have been used to make temporary land bridges over those and other river crossings, but “they got worse and worse, and then they got to the point where they couldn’t safely get across,” largely due to overall warmer weather.
Once installed, the bridges over the Meen and Dobie Rivers on that route will stay in place year-round, he said, adding that materials are currently being purchased, with construction expected to take place next winter.
The province announced Windigo also received $250,000 for engineering and geotechnical work ahead of planned future water crossing infrastructure on the Four First Nations Group winter road network. That’s a series of corridors between North Caribou Lake, Muskrat Dam, Bearskin Lake and Sachigo Lake.
That road network, Salo said, has also received other funding from the provincial and federal governments to realign roads to higher ground.
“Historically, for the winter roads, they would cut across swamp and muskeg because it’s fairly flat and level, but our winters would be consistently colder and they wouldn’t see the warm temperatures,” he said. “So, they would actually freeze up well and be able to support a load, but with the freeze and thaws that we’re now seeing, those … roads on low land are not really that feasible, so they’ve had to move a lot of their winter road to high ground.”
However, there are numerous water crossings along that network to deal with, he said, necessitating the preliminary work in advance of future planned installation of bridges, like on the Pickle Lake to Cat Lake route, once further funding is secured.
“That would basically bridge the gap between winter road and all-season road construction,” Salo said.
The province also announced funding for other winter road-related initiatives, including:
• $4.1 million for Wawakapewin First Nation to complete designs, purchase and install four modular bridges between it and Kasabonika Lake First Nation
• $2.9 million for Matawa First Nations Management for various upgrades, including installing two bridges on the Eabametoong and Nibinamik winter roads; also for technical studies for building future bridges on the Webequie, Nibinamik and Eabametoong winter roads
• $307,857 to Neskantaga First Nation for 15 culverts along the Otoskwin River Road to reduce flooding.
