PICKLE LAKE – Startling footage found on Facebook group, “NWO.ca,” shows a large round object rushing through fast-flowing rapids that have pushed their way through a detached culvert on Highway 599.
Coralie Guindon uploaded the video and tagged the post, “Wiggle creek washout 599 going to Pickle Lake. They are expecting it to be fixed Wednesday at the earliest.
Is Wednesday too long to wait?
NDP Candidates Sol Mamakwa (Kiiwetinoong) and JoAnne Formanek Gustafson (Kenora-Rainy River) say no, as they call the province for additional help.
"We are calling for action on every provincial resource that communities need now to protect families and their homes from damage due to flooding. The extreme conditions of climate change are being felt by the people of Kiiwetinoong, Kenora-Rainy River and the Northwest. They need every assistance possible to help them through it.”
Topics of transportation in the north have been a significant platform issue for each respective party during this election period.
Where the Progressive Conservatives are concerned, they seem to be more focused on urban development transportation projects like “building a bypass in Bradford,” “a weekday GO Rail between London and Union Station in Toronto,” and “continuing the next phase of construction for the new Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph.”
That isn’t to say that the PCs will not maintain Northwest highways. Again, there are a lot of safety concerns, and with the recent flooding and culvert collapse, highway maintenance for the north has to be on their radar.
However, when we see the disastrous impacts of the raging water system deteriorating the northwest roads, we cannot help to think that there isn’t more that could be done for the north.
On the flip side, the Liberals plan to scrap Doug Ford’s Highway 413 project in favour of investing $10 billion into building new schools across Ontario. Doug Ford’s Highway 413 project is set to relieve the congestion in the Greater Toronto Area.
A noble cause and greatly needed, but are the Liberals thinking about northern highway maintenance at all. The answer is kind of. The public can go to https://ontarioliberal.ca/poll-improving-transportation/ and fill out a poll on road safety, increasing public transit services outside of peak times, and if the public should receive winter tire tax credits.
Tax credits on winter tires would be excellent, but Pickle Lake, Rainy River, Red Lake, and Kenora will need boats before Spring is finished.
Therefore, for the time being, the floodwaters rise, and people are cut off from travelling outside their communities. Still, the province has no word if help can be provided.