Quebec's North Shore mayors lobby Ottawa for highway extension linking stranded communities

Mayors from Quebec's North Shore and Lower North Shore regions say they've waited long enough for a road to connect them with the rest of the province.

A 15-person delegation from the two regions traveled to Ottawa this week to meet with the federal government and lay out reasons why Highway 138 should be extended to the Labrador border.

Highway 138 runs from Elgin, southwest of Montreal, to Kegaska, 1,400 kilometres away. It picks up again in Bonne-Espérance, where the road continues onto Blanc-Sablon.

That leaves a 375-kilometre stretch between Kegaska and Vieux-Fort where nearly a dozen communities are unconnected with Quebec's road network. 

One of those communities is Gros-Mecatina. Its mayor says the highway extension is necessary for the survival of communities like his.

"It's very painful to see communities die. And that's what's happening," said Randy Jones, who is also prefect for the Golfe du St-Laurent administrative region on the Lower North Shore.

Jones was part of this week's delegation, which also included the mayors of Sept-Îles and Baie-Comeau, along with Innu leaders. The chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador, Ghislain Picard, also took part in the trip.

"If this had been done 20 years ago, we might be driving down the road by now," Jones said of the united lobbying effort.

Relying on planes and ships for travel and shipments has become more and more unreliable, according to Jones, because of weather that is increasingly extreme.

"We're seeing storms with winds of 130 to 140 kilometres an hour. That's unheard of," said Jones.

Treacherous 1,600-kilometre detour

The mayor of Sept-Îles, Réjean Porlier, helped organize the meeting with federal officials. He left feeling positive. 

"For the first time, the North Shore was speaking with one voice," he told CBC News.

Sept-Îles has one of the busiest ports in the country. It is a shipping hub for steel and other metals from Quebec's mining territories. The area also produces around 40 per cent of the province's hydroelectricity.

Given its importance to Quebec's economy, it's time the government to give something back to the North Shore, Porlier said. "People come here to get natural resources and leave. We don't get anything in return."

While Sept-Îles is already connected to Highway 138, the extension should be seen as a development tool for a region that struggles to retain its younger residents, Porlier said.  

He argued that Newfoundland and Labrador would also benefit from having a more direct link to the east, rather than having to go through the Maritimes.

The only other road connecting Labrador to Quebec is through Labrador City and onto Highway 389, which eventually leads to Baie-Comeau​ — that represents a treacherous 1,600 kilometre detour. 

"It makes no sense. We're only missing 375 kilometres to make this a direct link," Porlier said.

More meetings ahead

The local Bloc Québécois MP, Marilène Gill, said she was encouraged by the response from the Liberal government.

"They were really open to know about the project. That's where we can see how important the delegation was," said Gill.

She called the extension of Highway 138 "a matter of life or death" for the coast's small communities.

"People want to occupy the territory, they want to stay with their families, but they also want to work," said Gill.

The previous provincial government had earmarked $232 million under its Plan Nord infrastructure project to get the ball rolling on the extension.

Talks last year between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador aimed at strengthening economic ties between the two provinces also included discussion about Highway 138.

The progress at different levels of government has Jones, the mayor of Gros-Mecatina, feeling optimistic. 

"The federal government can build bridges, the province will build roads, and we'll get this country hooked up from one end to the other," he said.