Feds commit $169 million to Highway 69 improvements

The federal government says its announcement of $169 million for work on Highway 69 is historic.

Liberal MPs Marc Serre and Paul Lefevbre made the announcement Tuesday afternoon, a stone's throw from passing traffic in a vacant lot near Highway 69 and Algonquin Road.

Two major projects are slated to get underway soon. An 11 kilometre stretch of highway north of Highway 559 is scheduled to be twinned, and a 19.3 kilometre section will be 4-laned, including new twin bridges over Still River, Key River and Straight Lake.

Lefevbre said he has made the trip down the highway several times, often as a coach for his daughter's hockey team.

"Every time we would take the highway, I was always concerned," Lefebvre said.  

"We deserve the same infrastructure that we have down south," Lefevbre said. "Full stop. And now this is another step to make sure that this happens."

Serre added the $169 million is the largest federal infrastructure investment in northern Ontario. Although road and maintenance funding for Highway 69 usually falls to provincial hands, the Trudeau government was committing to working with the provincial Conservatives, even if the two levels spar over larger issues, like the federal carbon tax.

"There's been challenges. There's no doubt," Serre said. "But at the end of the day people want us to work together. We have to find ways."

"It's really important that we put the political aside and we find ways to invest in municipalities," he said. "We invest in roads and we have to do that together. But, yes, there's just challenges all over and we have to find ways to overcome them."

Ron Henderson of Sudbury, who is part of the advocacy group Crash 69, said he was optimistic that the work on the highway could move ahead with the announcement.

"The timing is fantastic," Henderson said. "I mean [for] several years where we've heard nothing in terms of progress. It's been nine years since we've heard anything and I'm starting to wonder whether it's ever going to happen."

Henderson lost his sister and her sons in a fatal crash on Highway 69 in 2002. He said he is hopeful this latest investment will help achieve the group's goals of making the highway wider and ultimately safer.

"It really brings us down to the finish line now," he said. "And if we can get a little momentum from the Ford government...to finish the sole remaining piece we can get this thing done in a reasonable timeline."