The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Manitoba will be awarding 20 contracts worth $5 million for winter roads to First Nations and remote northern communities, Transportation and Government Services Minister Ron Lemieux has announced. "The construction and maintenance of Manitoba's extensive winter road system is a major source of seasonal employment and economic gain for northern communities," said Lemieux. "The seasonal roads also provide a short but vital link to the provincial transportation system for our northern residents, helping to bring in significant amounts of freight for the benefit of their communities." The province will directly fund $331,000 and the remainder will be cost shared equally with the federal government. The winter road system extends approximately 2,200 kilometres across the province and serves over 38,000 Manitobans in 24 communities. Each year roughly 2,000 shipments, primarily fuel, construction materials and general freight, are hauled by truck over the winter routes. "Manitoba's northern development strategy recognizes the importance of the seasonal road system to the economic development of northern and remote communities," said Lemieux. "Since 1999 we have significantly expanded the winter roads and tripled our investment to strengthen the strategy and provide economic opportunity to these communities." An important part of managing the winter road system in recent years has been the realignment of routes away from waterways to improve safety and reduce environmental risks. To date more than 600 kilometres of winter roads have been realigned to eliminate water crossings. Improvements As a result of improved routing, more convenient and direct winter road linkages have been completed. Among the improvements are: The community of Garden Hill will be connected to Red Sucker Lake by a land-based route and 80 kilometres of ice roads will be eliminated this winter, creating safer access to Red Sucker Lake. The winter road to Brochet, Lac Brochet and Tadoule Lake had its earliest opening in 2003-04 after 250 kilometres of ice roads over South Indian Lake and Reindeer Lake were eliminated creating an all-land based road. A new bridge crossing the Cochrane River was also constructed. In 2003-04 the route was opened Jan. 11 to light traffic and to full truck loads on Jan. 17. The access road to Tadoule Lake is scheduled to open in early February. A winter road to the community of Granville Lake was completed in 2000. An all-weather access road for the Marcel Colomb First Nation at Hughes Lake was a federal-provincial cost-shared project completed with input from the community in 2003. The department has completed construction of a new winter road to Oxford House. The construction of a bridge at the Hayes River is completed and the new route will open for the 2004-05 winter road year.
