NDP continues to push for northern highway improvements

The provincial NDP continues to lobby for measures that improve road safety in northern Ontario.

A Private Member’s Bill was voted down at Queen’s Park earlier this year.

MPPs informed the legislature on Thursday that highways in northwestern Ontario have been shut down more than 550 times this year.

Many of the closures have been related to collisions involving transports.

Timiskaming MPP John Vathof dismisses the government’s explanation.

“The minister yesterday said that’s because the police closed them, the OPP closed them,” says Vanthof.

“The OPP doesn’t just close them for fun. They close them because of accidents, because of people getting run off the roads by badly-trained cross-country truck drivers.”

The Private Member’s Bill had proposed increased enforcement by Ministry of Transportation inspectors and that truck inspection stations stay open longer.

Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP Lise Vaugeois says an inspection station near Thunder Bay is rarely open.

“The Minister of Transportation has said that inspection stations should be staffed 24/7. Yet our brand new $30 million inspection station in Shuniah is almost never open,” says Vaugeois.

Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sakaria says they have more than doubled the number of MTO enforcement officers working in the north from 19 to 50.

He adds they conducted over 90,000 inspections since January, a 35% increase over last year.