The Current - Calls to fix a deadly stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

People in Northern Ontario are calling on the provincial and federal governments to invest in fixing a portion of the Trans-Canada Highway. Over a 10 day period from late January into February this year, police say eight people were killed on that stretch of road. We speak with Dave Plourde, the Mayor of Kapuskasing, and the President of the Federation of the Northern Ontario Municipalities.. 

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N-E-T-H-R-I-S-com. Nethris, much more than just a payroll software. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. Gene Pitney knew the Trans-Canada Highway stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. It is the artery that connects this country from west to east or east to west. It is the only route for large trucks carrying goods through the province of Ontario, and large stretches of that highway in northern Ontario are in particularly rough shape.

About 87,000 tons of cargo valued at about two hundred. million dollars pass along that highway every single day. But most of the drive is actually a two-lane highway. And people in Northern Ontario say these roads are old, dangerous, in need of serious upgrades. Kevin Layler is in Nebbing, a remote community just past Thunder Bay. When there's an accident, everything shuts down. There's a lineup of traffic, so you can't get out and people park so close to each other that they can't back up to let the person out of their driveway if they're trying to go in the opposite.

direction that it was closed. Well, they need to put it in an alternative route. It's going to save lives, too, right? Over a 10-day period from late January through February of this year, police say eight people were killed on that stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway. Dave Pluord is the manager of Kappascaasing, small community that sits right on the Trans-Canada Highway. He's also president of the Federation of the Northern Ontario municipalities. Dave, good morning. Morning, Matt. For people who are never driven on that stretch of the highway, just describe what it's like. Well, as you described earlier, you have 1,000 kilometers of two-lane highway with many times no passing lanes, gravel shoulders, really limited passing and pull off areas specifically in the wintertime when there's a lot of heavy traffic traveling on the highways. Pretty dangerous, much of the time snowpacked and no dividers.

You know, I know it's hard to describe it, you know, in 10 seconds, but really it's, unless you've driven it, it's really hard to, you know, put it in words. That's a really important point, and I want to come back to that. But as mayor, you would know just the scale of that danger. We've seen, as I said, multiple people who've died on the stretch of this highway each year. Why is it so dangerous? Well, I think that the increase in heavy traffic on the highways is one. I think if you consider that, especially these days, much of the truck traffic or border crossings going through to the states is down 25%. We're suspecting that much of the truck traffic that used to go through the U.S. to other destinations in Western Canada.

Now are routing through Northern Ontario because of just the relations between the U.S. and Canada at this time, increasing the traffic. And besides, you know, the growth of Northern Ontario, you know, when Canada talks about having everything in Canada, the world needs, in fact, it's right here in our backyard. So the future of Ontario is in Northern Ontario and the growth of our area is increasing. And, you know, after COVID, municipalities grew. The populations grow and everything's taken up. So the housing is full, you know. So, and as you indicated in your intro, it's a lifeline. It's a lifeline to many of these communities. It's like a road that goes to, and there's a lot of small communities that are serviced by larger communities that really offer all the services that they don't have in those small communities.

You could imagine that there are some politicians who would say that fixing up that road is a provincial issue, but you have made this a national issue. The prime minister has been pitching this idea of nation building projects, and you wrote a letter to the prime minister. Mark Carney saying that improving, and it's actually two highways, Highway 11 and 17, should be a national priority. Make the pitch for that. Why is this a national issue? Well, I think that, you know, if the prime minister is dedicated 1.5% of his GDP for dual-use infrastructure that serves both civilian and military purposes, certainly you can understand that if you are trying to get around or are trying to get from east to west, and it's no longer a comfort. If there was a problem or closure on the highway and you had to

detour through the U.S., that's a vulnerability. And I think that that's a reality. I mean, if this is our lifeline, if in fact we were divided by that, there'd be no passage except through to the U.S. And, you know, the highway was built on 50% dollars back in the day. And I think that, you know, we've been overlooked for many years. And if the growth is to be, in northern Ontario, then certainly we have to be ready to accelerate and be able to receive the growth that is anticipated. You've also made the point that we talk a lot about critical minerals, for example, also interprovincial trade, and that the highway will be critical to both of those issues, right?

Absolutely. I mean, that is it, in a nutshell. It really is. I mean, roads are closed for four days. I mean, I've seen one this year that was closed for four days I met with a mining vice president that said, Dave, what do you think when I shut the gold mine down for four days? What do you think it costs at $5,000 an ounce when I can't get my people in and out of the site and that, you know, I can't get services in? You know, it's just a reality. And it just shuts down.

It shuts down everything. Any industry that operates any movement of goods, I mean, I don't know that if Sutton, Ontario, were to experience no food on the shelves, what they think about that. But in some of these communities, that's a reality. I mean, if the highway shut down for four days, the product doesn't get to the shelves, what do you think happens? And we're not a third world country here. You know, this is on the Transcan Highway, after all.

Let me ask you just finally about that point, and you've hinted at this earlier as well. You said, and you said this to the Globe and Mail, when politicians come to Kappascacing or other northern Ontario communities, they fly. To really understand this, you have to drive. What is it that politicians down south, what is it that they don't understand about the importance of this infrastructure in Northern Ontario? Well, I think it's just truly getting a visual. Like anybody, Matt, I mean, many, many people in Toronto think that when you talk, and I'm there quite frequently, I'm there monthly, actually, and I drive.

But when you ask them if they've ever been to Northern Ontario, the first thing is Barry. So there's really a... An hour north of Toronto. Absolutely. And, you know, if I think of one of my colleagues up in Red Lake, you know, and you put this into perspective, he has to get to Toronto, it's a 24-hour drive, a 24-hour drive. And if you left from Toronto to go to Florida, it's a 24-hour drive. So in Ontario, a mayor that has to get to Toronto for a meeting is 24 hours.

And most of that is on Tulane Highway. I mean, so they just don't understand. So I think we, you know, in pitching to government on regular basis about our highways and what they're like. I think, you know, we don't do ourselves a service. I mean, I think it's a disservice too, because, you know, we put the fear of God in them that they don't want to drive our highways

and so they choose to fly instead. I think, you know, it's important that they get out there and they drive the highway and understand exactly and not in the summertime. Doing the wintertime, when there might be a road closure, you better hope that there's a full tank of gas because you don't know when the next gas station is coming. And hopefully you're not driving a electric.

vehicle we had we had during one of the closures a gentleman stranded down a an old logging road trying to detour the the the closure and almost froze to death luckily he was found by the OPP so I mean these are these are real things people are putting off their funerals because of the road conditions we had three members pass just after Christmas coming back from a funeral imagine it's just it's just not you know it's time it's time for change we've outgrow the roads that we have presently, they were built back in the 40s. It's time to bring them up to today's standards, and it's really a health and safety concern,

if nothing else. It's really important to get a snapshot of what life is like. This is a big country, and again, people outside of individual communities may not know what it is that you're dealing with. Mayor Plurd, good to speak with you. Thank you very much. Thanks for your time today, Matt. I really appreciate the topic.

It's important. Dave Plurid is the mayor of Kappascais. It's a town in northern Ontario. He's also president of the Federation of the Northern Ontario municipalities. Kerry Black is an associate professor and Canada research chair at the University of Calgary School of Engineering. She studies the health and sustainability of Canadian communities and their infrastructure. Carrie, good morning to you. Good morning.

The mayor says that it's time for change, that his community and the North have outgrown the infrastructure that's there. How familiar is that sentiment, do you think? Pretty familiar. I think it's something you're hearing, especially. in rural and remote communities across Canada. We've talked before about the scale of the infrastructure deficit. What is it now, $400 billion across this country? It sure is.

And I think, you know, it depends on how you're looking at it. But that's generally speaking, we've all accepted that it's between $350 and $400 billion. And so because of population concentration but also where the seats of power are, the focus ends up often being on major urban centers. In smaller communities, what does that look like? Well, we're facing, you know, massive challenges of infrastructure. And as you heard from the last speaker, I mean, a lot of the major projects that we're talking about, a lot of the ways that we connect in with our communities, especially rural communities,

is through infrastructure. And in fact, a lot of rural communities actually are responsible for some pretty major, you would consider them probably more provincial infrastructure. They're responsible for having to maintain or even pay the costs of some of those pieces. And so, you know, just if we're looking where I am right now, just in Alberta, rural municipalities of Alberta estimate a $17 billion deficit. And that's a really big number for a lot of small communities. And so at a small community level, what you're looking at is a very small tax base,

but high cost of infrastructure because it doesn't get cheaper with less people. a minimum start to the cost of infrastructure. So, you know, when you're looking at smaller populations, you're bearing the brunt of a pretty massive cost. How do you make the case to spend that money on that infrastructure? It's a different province. But in Nova Scotia, it was announced that the province is cutting something like $17 million in infrastructure projects. And the premier says that that money is going to go into health care. Health care is important, but so is infrastructure. How do you make the case that the money needs to be spent for those projects? Well, you know, I think one of the hard pieces for people to understand is infrastructure, you know, including things like hospitals and schools,

which are part of our social infrastructure, but, you know, our core infrastructure like water, wastewater, these are just as important to our health and well-being as every other infrastructure category, like our digital infrastructure and our cell towers and the ways in which we connect. But it's hard to make that case. And really, there's no politician that wants to stick their neck out and be, you know, run on the platform of repairing a pipe that hasn't caused a problem yet. but if that pipe breaks during their tenure, they're going to be faced with a massive problem. And so you're sort of criticized with investing in infrastructure before it fails, but then you're criticized after if you didn't invest in it before it failed.

And so as a politician, this is really tricky, but infrastructure is inherently political, and that's what makes it even more challenging. And we're seeing that provinces, you know, depending on where you are in this country, are cutting cost to infrastructure. And that means that the money has to come from somewhere. And if it's not coming from the province and it's not coming from the federal government, that's going to be on the backs of municipalities, small and large. And arguably, neither one of those can really afford to have the cost of the infrastructure just put on their backs.

You also need the money. And, I mean, in Capis casing, in Ontario, you have a premier who, I mean, he's running ads right now saying that he has never increased taxes on the tax base and the people of Ontario. So if you don't have the money, can you put that money into the infrastructure that you need? to invest in in in the first place. Absolutely not. And really what we've been doing for the last few decades is trying to move money around, but essentially it's not changing anything. So I might one year invest in a new HVAC system for a school,

but that means I didn't repair the roadway that the bus has to take to get to the school. And the next year I might invest in a water pipe, but I'm going to cut costs from somewhere else. I'm just moving money around. And at the end of the day, that's not changing the end game. Every minute that we're not investing in infrastructure, it's costing more and more because it's just getting older and it's in dire need of repair.

And if we don't actually invest it on an annual basis, then what we have is a case where we have to completely repair and replace something. And the cost is that much higher. I'm going to let you go. But one of the things we heard from the mayor is that this is a nation building project. Could you see that pitch working?

That nation building is not just high-speed rail and new projects, but it's also about investing in the things that we already have to make sure that they work. Absolutely. And Northern Ontario is a great example of that. Where we're looking to invest in major industry partnerships, we should be allocating a portion of the new money to go to core infrastructure. And whether that's from the federal government and portions from the province and portions from for profit in industry, that's where it has to come from. We have to make the case that we can't float these great ideas of new projects without also investing in core infrastructure. Kerry, good to talk to you again. Thank you very much. Thanks so much. Carrie Black is an associate professor, Canada research chair at the University of Calgary's School of Engineering. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca slash podcasts.