Folks in northern Ontario fear for their lives as trucks barrel along the roads that they use to take their kids to school and hockey games. They use these roads for doctor’s appointments, to pick up supplies and head to social gatherings.

Northerners are also frustrated and very angry. They are angry enough to have called for protests and highway blockades during an online discussion in which more than 150 people logged on.

Hwys. 11 and 17, which are part of the Trans-Canada Highway, are Main Streets for people living along these roadways, noted discussion organizer John Vanthof, NDP candidate for the provincial Temiskaming–Cochrane riding.

Social media sites are littered with images and videos of crashes and trucks in the ditch along this section of the Trans-Canada Highway. Such incidents occur regularly, Vanthof said.

Families’ lives are being put at risk by some truckers who speed, drive aggressively and badly, Vanthof and Lise Vaugeois, NDP candidate for Thunder Bay–Superior North, told me after the online discussion. They added that the number of trucks traversing Hwy. 11/17 has greatly increased in the past few years.

Their number one demand was that no trucking company or community college should be able to recruit, train and licence their own drivers. When I pointed out most drivers graduate from the MELT (mandatory entry-level training) program from driving schools, Vanthof said that schools are not providing adequate training, citing a 2018 auditor general’s report.

Lack of training

The candidates said that new drivers are not trained to drive on the mostly single-lane Hwys. 11 and 17, especially during the winter.

I asked Vanthof ‘How does one replicate northern Ontario winter conditions at a driving school in the south within the 103.5 hours provided by MELT?’ Vanthof suggested simulators, but also didn’t disagree that they are not very effective.

He added that graduated licensing would work.

But there is no appetite in the industry for a graduated licence. If a fleet can get a driver in a few weeks, why wait for months or years?

There were also numerous calls during the online discussion for increased Ministry of Transport (MTO) enforcement in the north. The government opened a $30-million commercial inspection station in Shuniah on Highway 11/17 near Thunder Bay last year with much fanfare.

The former legislators told me that it now sits unstaffed and shuttered. They added that MTO inspectors were brought from southern Ontario and housed in hotels to operate the scale for a while.

When the scale was operational, Vaugeois said that truckers would park and wait at the truck stop in Thunder Bay until the inspection station lights were turned off and then head back on the highway. She demanded that the Shuniah scale be operated 24 hours a day.

Vaugeois and Vanthof are keen to improve conditions and amenities for truck drivers along these highways, where in some places there is no safe spot to pull over for hundreds of kilometers. Truck stops are few and far between and there hardly are any rest stops. Washroom facilities on these routes are also dismal.

Highlighting concerns

The politicians are trying to diffuse the situation. Vanthof suggested making videos about the situation in the north and running advertising campaigns in the south to highlight their problems. He also said stickers on cars might help spread the word.

Vaugeois, Vanthof, and Guy Bourgouin, NDP candidate for Mushkegowuk-James Bay have released a plan listing what can be done to make the Trans-Canada Highway safer. A provincial election has been called and everything is on hold as candidates of all stripes focus on winning their seats.

Meanwhile, tensions will continue to simmer in the north. Car stickers, advertising campaigns and online discussions may not placate everyone as they struggle to make their voices heard in faraway Queen’s Park in Toronto. What if people take matters into their own hands and decide to protest or block the highway?

One more avoidable crash involving an 18-wheeler and a four-wheeler could result in more lives being lost. I wonder how many more lives it will take before things get safer for northern families and truck drivers who use their “Main Streets”.