December 11, 2024
MPP Gélinas: Let’s put our heads together and fix Highway 144
QUEEN’S PARK – This week Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas rose in the legislature to speak to the dangerous state of Highway 144.
“It has been another week of mayhem on Highway 144. Highway 144 is a 300-kilometre highway that goes from Sudbury to Timmins. It is a two-lane highway with no shoulder, very few passing lanes, no cell service for most of it, one gas station at the Watershed and a ton of transport trucks. Whether it be summer or winter, this highway kills and maims way too many Northerners.
The Ford government refuses to do anything about training of commercial truck drivers or winter road maintenance in the North of this province even though weekly pictures of jack-knifed trucks laying across all lanes circulate constantly on social media as well as on the news. This issue cannot be ignored anymore. Not only do people have to use this highway to get home, but some of the biggest wealth-producers in this province—nickel producers like Vale, Glencore and the new gold mine with IAMGOLD—all need that highway to stay open.
If this is a world-class place for investment, why are families and workers in my riding putting their life at risk every time they use Highway 144? My constituents want a round-table with representatives from the Ministry of Transportation, police, ambulance, tow truck operators, shipping companies, mining companies, school bus drivers and other road users. Let’s put our heads together to make this highway safe. The province is responsible for this highway and needs to take action to stop the deaths. This has to stop. Highway 144 kills way too many people. We want it to be safe.”