The NDP MPP for Sudbury, Jamie West, blasted the Ford government during question period Tuesday, suggesting that the current state of winter roads in northern Ontario is good enough for Northerners.
Last week, the Ford government unanimously voted against a bill from NDP MPP Guy Bourgouin, the Making Northern Ontario Highways Safer Act — legislation that the NDP say would have improved winter maintenance on Highways 11 and 17.
See: Northern PCs bail on highway safety bill vote
"Conservative Northern MPPs Vic Fedeli, Greg Rickford and Ross Romano didn’t even show up for the vote. But Fedeli later contended that the bill is unnecessary because northern highways are already cleared often enough, and praised previous cuts to the department," said an NDP news release today.
“The Auditor General showed us that the Liberals saved $36 million by cutting the monitoring of the plowing,” West claims Fedeli wrote on social media. "MTO has made enhanced public information a priority. Public messaging includes driving according to road and weather conditions.”
“People are white-knuckled on unplowed, icy highways, and it’s even scarier when it’s your kids out there,” said West. “Families don’t want to hear about the dollars supposedly saved by making us less safe. And families sure as heck don’t want to hear that the priority is ‘enhanced public information.’ Northern families want and deserve enhanced snow plowing and road safety."
In response, Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney told the legislature, "Over the course of a typical winter, Mr. Speaker, on average, bare pavement is regained on highways 11 and 17 within seven hours after the end of a storm. Much sooner than the standard time frames for both major highways class 2 and freeways about urban highways class 1. Over the past few years, the ministry has worked very hard to continue to enhance the quality of service on our northern highways and roads to ensure they also are among the safest in North America. We have done that, Mr. Speaker, we're committed to ensuring the safety and highway maintenance."
