Mild weather delaying winter road openings for remote First Nations – Northern Ontario Business
January 16th, 2023
The unseasonably mild weather in the Northwest is impacting construction of winter roads for some First Nations communities.
The time window for essential winter roads to stay open for First Nations in the Northwest is getting shorter.
The higher than normal winter temperatures in the region are creating challenges in building winter ice roads, said Roy Fiddler, the project manager in charge of building winter roads for Muskrat Dam First Nation.
Fiddler said the roads are about two or three weeks behind where they should be at this time of the year.
“By this time on any normal or a better season, semi-trucks would be rolling in now with gas, fuel, housing materials,” he said in an interview on Friday. “We’d be open for all kinds of traffic, but right now there’s only a few small trucks that are on, because it’s just too rough. The ground is somewhat frozen but there’s a lot of rock.”
