Highway 17, Huron Central Railway discussed as part of northern transportation plan – SooToday

'We continue to advocate, theres a lot of discussions being had,' said Ross Romano during today's announcement with Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney

No less than four Ontario government cabinet ministers, including Sault MPP and Minister of Colleges and Universities Ross Romano, announced a Transportation Plan for Northern Ontario via Zoom Thursday.

What could be described as awork in progress, the plan includes more than 60 actions, including improvements to rest areas, expanding bus service and going ahead with highway widening projects on Highways 17 and 11, along with actions to make further progress on plans for passenger rail service in northern Ontario.

Four-laning, or even widening, of Highway 17 east and north of the city is something Sault and area residents have wanted for years, and though some progress has been made, more is needed.

So does the plan include that?

That is a conversation certainly thats been had, and continues to be had. Wherever we can, we want to do anything in our power to support making our highways and roads safer, Romano said, replying to SooToday.

We continue to advocate, theres a lot of discussions being had.

Romano was joined Thursday by Caroline Mulroney, Minister of Transportation; Greg Rickford, Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines; and Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

Today is about a plan, replied Rickford, speaking to SooToday as a follow up to Romanos comment.

Part of the problem weve had across northern Ontario for the previous 15 years is...frankly, weve had a highway, when it comes to twinning, thats been built by ad hocery, driven by political ideology or some interest in the prospects of politics. Its high time we just got a plan. And that plan has been put in place so that we can start to make sense to the people of northern Ontario that this highway, particularly 11 and 17, is a safe highway, and the most pressing and most substantial parts of it are twinned.

I dont think theres any question that if you give this government an opportunity over the next decade, well see to it that significant parts of this road (is twinned), and Ive often felt the entire stretch at some point needs to be twinned. Nobody disputes that. You take a look at the map of across Canada, its the only section of the country where there is no twinned highway, so were going to continue to make sure that this is guided by plans, guided by safety sequencing, Rickford said.

It (the plan announced Thursday) will evolve as we do more consultation, as we gather more feedback and questions like yours (regarding Highway 17 four-laning) are exactly to the point. Thisll be an opportunity to feed those kinds of needs into future action items in the plan, said Mulroney, also in reply to SooToday.

Another element of the northern transportation plan that will be coming after todays announcement is were going to be putting together a task force of local transportation experts, Indigenous leaders, municipal leaders who can speak directly to the needs that theyre seeing on the ground that they need to be reflected in future versions of this plan.

Its a living document, Mulroney said.

As for parent company Genesee & Wyomings plans to stop Huron Central Railways short line freight rail operations eight days from now, Mulroney was asked by reporters what plans the province has to invest in rail infrastructure to keep the HCR running between the Sault and Sudbury, its operations crucial to local industries such as Algoma Steel.

In September, Genesee & Wyoming stated it needs $44 million from the senior levels of government to upgrade the line, Dec. 18 being the last day of business for the line if that financial aid doesnt come through (with a local stakeholder committee working to keep the lines operations alive).

Im well aware of the challenges theyre facing, Mulroney said, stating she and Romano had met with HCR pre-pandemic.

Were continuing through MTO and my office to discuss the challenges theyre facing and Im trying to understand how we can support them...I know theres a tight timeline so were continuing to monitor the situation. We are aware this has important implications for Ross riding and for the region.

Obviously, short line rail in northern Ontario is critical, its important, this is critical infrastructure and we want to make sure that we keep our short line rail operators and we make sure they're competitive, Romano said, adding the provinces plan includes sustaining short line rail operations in northern Ontario.

Romano drew attention to recent provincial Connecting Links funding which led to Black Road widening and work performed on Trunk Road.

There wasnt even a sidewalk on the side of the road (Black Road) and youre walking along a single lane of traffic with transports buzzing by you that are traveling across this country, and for that link we were able to secure three million dollars, the maximum allowable amount under Connecting Links funding for the Black Road expansion...and then we got three million dollars for the Trunk Road expansion, Romano said, thanking Mulroney and her Ministry for those investments.

Right now the focal point in terms of the current here and now announcements is that six million dollars worth of Connecting Links funding that youve seen over the last few years, Romano said.

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Highway 17, Huron Central Railway discussed as part of northern transportation plan - SooToday