Dan Belisle has been driving the roads of northern Ontario in summer and winter for years and has never seen them as treacherous or dangerous as they are now.
The 73-year-old retired auto seller from Cochrane, Ont., said the number of fatal crashes has gotten so bad he worries about his grandchildren getting behind the wheel in the north.
“I was on the road lots and I never feared driving like I do now — it’s very scary,” he said. “The government has to have a plan.”
Ontario’s snap election — running for four freezing February weeks — has catapulted the issue of roads and road safety to the top of the agenda in northern Ontario.
Just before the campaign kicked off, on Jan. 23, another crash was recorded near Ignace, Ont.
Around 3:30 a.m. that day, two transport trucks crashed in an incident that killed three people and closed Highway 17 for hours. The fatal collision near Ignacve, which is home to roughly 1,300 people, wasn’t new to the tiny northern town.
“All over northern Ontario, these sorts of catastrophes and dangerous situations do occur on highways,” Jake Pastore, outreach communications for the Town of Ignace, acknowledged.
In total last year, there were 21 fatal collisions in the remote area — the majority of them, 13, involved trucks. Overall, there were 213 crashes on the route that injured people during 2024.
Those numbers are roughly in line with averages on those northern roads in the past five years.
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“It’s bad — and it’s not getting any better,” said Belisle, whose Cochrane community is located almost 1,000 km east of Ignace, near Timmins. “There doesn’t seem to be a plan to do anything.”
With a specific northern debate in North Bay, Ont., last week the issue appears to have the attention of the province’s political parties. Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford, the NDP’s Marit Stiles, Liberal Bonnie Crombie and Green Leader Mike Schreiner all referenced their plans for road safety during the televised event.
Stiles pledged to widen Highways 11, 17 and 69 and Schreiner agreed, saying divided highways will increase safety.
“As premier, I’m going to bring winter road maintenance back in house and back under public government control, provincial control,” Stiles said.
Crombie pledged to provide more sustainable funding to municipalities to be able to spend money on road maintenance and safety initiatives.
Ford defended his government’s record over the last seven years. He pointed to a project expanding Highway 11/17 in northwestern Ontario and a $600-million investment to repair and expand highways. He also committed to twinning Highway 69 between Sudbury and Parry Sound, Ont., the only non-divided portion of that road between Toronto and Sudbury. Some of the land needed for that belongs to two First Nations.
“We’re going to help make sure it’s a two-lane highway on both sides, and they’re 100 per cent behind us,” Ford said of the First Nations.
In Ignace, Pastore said locals have been working on, and calling for, solutions for years.
“What we’ve been advocating for for many years, alongside many northern Ontario communities, including Sault Ste. Marie and some of the others — Thunder Bay, North Bay — is really increased monitoring of speeds, increased safety zones, of course the four-laning of the highways,” he said.
Pastore said highways 400, 11 and 17 had all seen “traffic has increased significantly because of transportation” and should be expanded to four lanes.
“I think these are issues that are going to remain very high on the agenda, alongside economic development and health and some of those other significant priorities for the province,” he added.
“But it doesn’t matter who’s running the government, we want to make sure that public safety and the safety of our residents.”
The north remains a key area for the PCs, NDP and Liberals. Ford is set to travel for a northern tour on Wednesday, while Crombie has visited Thunder Bay and Stiles launched her health care platform in Sault Ste. Marie.
In 2022, the NDP won seven of its 28 seats in northern Ontario and the PCs won four seats beyond cottage country.
Even with the attention, Belisle remains skeptical that there is really a plan to change the fatal highways he and his family must drive.
“The commitment for safe roads in northern Ontario is non-existent,” he said.
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