Berens River Bridge completion projected for 2028
By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Source: Thunder Bay Source
If all goes according to plan, Pikangikum First Nation will have a road and bridge connection to Ontario highways in less than three years, according to a spokesperson for Indigenous Services Canada.
“The construction contract was signed earlier this year,” Jennifer Cooper said in an email from Ottawa.
“Pre-construction work began in fall 2025. Construction is projected to conclude in spring 2028.”
Ontario cabinet minister and Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford in 2024 announced a federal-provincial partnership in conjunction with a First Nations organization to build a permanent bridge across the Berens River and an all-season road from the bridge to Pikangikum First Nation.
Once completed, the bridge and road will benefit Pikangikum’s Whitefeather Forest wood harvesting business and give people in the remote Ojibwe community year-round access to the provincial highway system and Red Lake to the south.
Six other First Nations – Poplar Hill, McDowell Lake, Deer Lake, North Spirit Lake, Sandy Lake and Keewaywin – stand to benefit through improved winter road connections, according to the Ontario government.
The federal government committed to getting the bridge built a few months before Rickford’s announcement. Red Lake Mayor Fred Mota told Newswatch in April 2024 that the federal commitment was a “game changer” and “a fantastic announcement for Northwestern Ontario, not only Red Lake but also for our First Nations community.”
That commitment, in the year’s federal budget, included no details other than that Ottawa would be investing $45 million in the construction phase.
Indigenous Services Canada’s Cooper said in her email this week that the federal government had “previously contributed $9.6 million to the planning and design phases of the project, with $5 million provided in 2024-2025 and $16 million provided in 2025-2026 for the construction phase of the project.”
Besides the Whitefeather Forest Initiative and the seven First Nations, another beneficiary of a bridge over the river would be Frontier Lithium, which wants to start a large mine north of North Spirit Lake.
Ontario Mines Minister Stephen Lecce announced in late October that Frontier’s project has been selected to undergo review under Ontario’s streamlined One Project, One Process framework.
