The New Democrat MPP for Timiskaming-Cochrane is using the Crawford nickel mine announcement to urge the government to fix Highway 11.
Last week, Crawford – near Timmins – was added to the federal government’s list of nation-building projects.
In the Ontario legislature, John Vanthof pointed out that you get there via Highway 11, which has been closed 30 times from January to September between North Bay and Cochrane.
“We’ve got the Minister of Northern Development in Timmins (George Pirie),” he said. “We’ve got the Minister of Economic Development in North Bay (Vic Fedeli) and somehow we can’t keep that section of highway, we can’t get it fixed or keep it open.”
Highway 11 is part of the Trans-Canada Highway. Vanthof says the route to the area of national significance needs to be a highway of national standards.
“It needs to be fixed to be brought up to the 21st century so we can help drive this province.”
Vanthof also noted that in the region are Agnico Eagle, the Detour Lake mine and Alamos Gold, which he called “the engine of Ontario”.
