Province’s stance on Municipal Road upsets councillor

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The province’s refusal to upload responsibility for Highway 67, now known as Municipal Road dismayed councillors at an April 30 council meeting.

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Province’s stance on Municipal Road upsets councillor Back to video

Ward 2 Councillor Lorne Feldman expressed his frustration after listening to a report from the City of Timmins’ Chief Administrative Officer Dave Landers on how to this point lobbying efforts from the municipality and the Town of Iroquois Falls have fallen on deaf ears.

“But to just sit and be upset about it is not going to achieve the goal of addressing this situation,” he said.

“Since this was downloaded in 1998, would we have been spending $100,000, $1 million per year? We have been sending crews down, there is a lot of maintenance on roads, so what type of dollars are we looking at?”

Those figures were not immediately available, but Landers noted there has been a significant capital investment in the bridge.

Written and verbal reports presented to council by Landers, updated the advocacy efforts to have the province take responsibility for the stretch of highway.

“We know it’s a highway and we continue to refer to it in that respect,” he said.

Between April 1997 and January 1998, numerous sections of highway, including this section of Highway 67, were downloaded from the province to the city and to the Town of Iroquois Falls.

Landers pointed out no other municipality received as many kilometres of highway as Timmins, with the city becoming responsible for an additional 20 per cent of roads, as a result.

“At that point in time, it was expected these transfers would create budgeting shortfalls in operating and capital down the road and we are getting to the point where the magnitude of the download is becoming unmanageable for municipalities,” he said.

“The condition of the transferred highways is very poor. The inventory requires full replacement within the next decade of the variety of roads that were downloaded, but Highway 67 or Municipal Road in particular is in a rough state.”

Municipal Road connects Highway 101 and Highway 11, conveying traffic from west of Timmins to mills in Northwestern Quebec, but for reasons known only to the province it does not qualify for Connecting Link funding.

The 22-kilometre stretch of former provincial highway provides access to Kettle Lakes Provincial Park, as well as quarries and forestry operations in the region.

“That’s the path back and forth for students in Catholic school in Timmins from Iroquois Falls and the path back and forth to a provincial detention centre (Monteith Correctional Complex),” Landers said.

He noted 10 kilometres of Municipal Road belong to Timmins, while the other 12 kilometres belong to Iroquois Falls, a community that has seen its tax base shrink considerably due to the loss of industry in recent years.

“A rough estimate of the cost to renew that is in excess of $1 million per kilometre, at this point, and that’s assuming the road base is sufficient,” Landers said.

“For our partners in Iroquois Falls there are a couple of culverts, so their share of the costs might be slightly greater, but Timmins did take on a bridge replacement/improvement along the way and that’s in good shape.”

Timmins and Iroquois Falls have been lobbying the province jointly, in hopes of seeing it take back responsibility for the former Highway 67.

“A united voice is better than two voices,” Landers said.

“Neither of our communities has the space in its capital budget for this project and given the loss of industry in Iroquois Falls, it’s just not likely they will ever be able to come up with the funds required of their tax base. Full reconstruction is likely greater than their entire tax base annually.”

It should be noted coming up with the necessary funding is not the only issue surrounding Municipal Road.

“Timmins, Iroquois Falls and the Province of Ontario are facing litigation for fatalities that have occurred on this highway,” Landers said.

In addition to engaging Timmins MPP George Pirie in the discussions, Landers pointed out they met with Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria at the Good Roads Conference in Toronto in late April.

“What we have been told is there is an intention to undertake another traffic study on this highway,” Landers said.

While the province has maintained in the past it is not in the business of uploading highways, it has done just that with the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto, the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto and Highway 174 in Ottawa.

Feldman said, “I don’t think there were many studies done for the Don Valley Parkway or the Gardiner Expressway or the highway in Ottawa. It was a snap of the finger and here are your billions of dollars. So, we know the study, in my mind, is a delay tactic.

“I think it is incumbent upon us to sit and revisit the strategy, to come up with an approach and I don’t have that approach, yet, but I know administration is thinking about his on a daily basis and I really feel we have to come at this from a different direction or it is just going to continue as it has since 1998.”

With quarries and forestry operations accessed by trucks travelling on Municipal Road, Feldman noted that represents resource-based revenue leaving the region.

“It just seems so highly inequitable that all of these valuable resources are being transported on highways for which we are responsible, but we are really receiving none of the benefits, whether it is through royalties, or anything else,” he said.

“I really think that has got to be raised with the province.”

Ward 4 John Curley finds the province’s stance on Municipal Road disappointing, to say the least.

“How many studies can we do for a section of road that contains a provincial park?” he asked.

“I don’t know what you are going to find, other than Ontario licence plates, unless they are going to stop every vehicle and ask them where they live or take a picture of everybody’s licence plates and check back through the registry to find out where they live and what they are using the highway for, is beyond me.

“When it was handed down to us, I can remember councillors drove down there and we had a little media session right there on the highway when they gave us this gift. The talk back then was, well we will look at it later.

“I don’t know what a study is going to give them, to be honest with you. We all know the condition of the road.”

In an attempt to help clarify the timeline for the study, Mayor Michelle Boileau pointed out they were told the request for proposals was closing imminently, with the study to be conducted during June, with the hope data would be available in time for the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in August.