The results are in and it’s official: Provincial Road 280 to Split Lake and Gillam received the most votes as Manitoba’s worst road in CAA Manitoba’s annual campaign.
The unpaved highway heads northeast from PR 391 and is the only road link for Split Lake and Gillam.
Members of Tataskweyak cree Nation blockaded the road last August to protest its condition and demand improvements.
“The CAA Worst Roads Campaign helps us understand the priorities of Manitobans,” said Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation Ron Kostyshyn in a CAA Manitoba press release announcing the winner. “We have used feedback from previous campaigns to help guide us as we develop highway improvement plans. In partnership with Manitoba Hydro, we have spent over $14 million since 2010 upgrading PR 280 and plan to spend another $25 million in the next two years.”
He also said improvements to PR 280 were among $5.5 billion worth of infrastructure spending over five years that the provincial government has planned.
“The problem is that our roads had been ignored for so long,” says Mike Mager, president and CEO of CAA Manitoba. “We are still playing catch up. It’s not where we want it to be, but by identifying the priorities we can go to government and ask them to lay out their plans. This campaign isn’t about complaining or finding the biggest pothole. It’s about identifying the problems, then lobbying for permanent change. We are glad this campaign gets people talking, but moreover, roads are getting fixed. There is a lot of work to do.”
PR 280 bumped St. James Street in Winnipeg – voted the province’s worst in 2014 and 2012 – to second place in this year’s online poll, which received a record high of 6,016 votes cast, more than in any of the previous three years it has run.
PR 280 is scheduled to receive $28 million worth of improvements cost-shared by the provincial government and Manitoba Hydro. Following last summer’s blockade, NDP Minister of Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Eric Robinson said planning would begin immediately with the goal of starting that roadwork within 12 months.
Chief Duke Beardy of Tataskweyak Cree Nation (TCN) wrote the provincial government a letter April 10 about worsening conditions on PR 280. It said that because of additional traffic, heavy machinery and transport trucks on the highway connecting Split Lake and Gillam to Thompson, resulting from the construction of the Keeyask Generating Station project, the conditions are not safe. “Our members drive this highway on a daily basis and have long-held concerns about the unsafe driving conditions. Many of our members have firsthand experience with the result of these conditions, be it through damage to their vehicles or, in the worst cases, personal tragedy.”
Beardy told the Thompson Citizen he’s saddened by the lack of communication the provincial government has with TCN. “TCN leadership is disheartened by the lack of progress made by the group that was establish to plan and implement upgrades on PR 280,” he wrote in the letter. “Since a new TCN Chief and Council were elected in November 2014, there has been no contact from Manitoba officials to indicate progress or to meet with community leaders.”
