Northern Highways Program
2008 to 2012

Overview

Record Highway Investments Improve Northern Infrastructure

A vast and ruggedly beautiful land, Northern Ontario comprises about 90 per cent of Ontario's landmass. More than half of northern citizens live in the five major cities of Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins, Sudbury, and North Bay. The balance lives in smaller communities and rural areas. Where considerable distances often separate communities, highways are a critical economic lifeline supporting the movement of people, raw materials and finished products in and out of the North.

Almost 11,000 kilometres in length, the Northern Ontario highway network represents about 65 per cent of the total provincial system, roughly equal to the distance from Toronto to Whitehorse and back. Northern highways provide vital links between northern and southern Ontario, between eastern and western Canada, as well as to and from the United States.

Strengthening the North and its Communities

The crucial role that highways play in supporting a strong North is understood and appreciated by the Government of Ontario. The Ministry of Northern Development and Mines (MNDM) allocates funding through the Northern Highways Program to develop and maintain the necessary highway infrastructure that will promote economic growth, sustain an evolving industrial base, and meet the social needs of northern residents. Together with the Ministry of Transportation (MTO), MNDM sets out program priorities for the repair and expansion of the northern highway network. MTO delivers the construction program and maintains the network.

This document provides the most recent annual update of the five-year construction program for northern highways, keeping northerners informed of where and when highways will be improved. The Northern Ontario Highways Strategy was published in 2005 in conjunction with the provincial infrastructure plan, ReNew Ontario, which set out a $1.8-billion program for the renewal and expansion of northern highways over five years. Original program targets such as the completion of the four-laning of Highway 11 to North Bay by 2012 and Highway 69 to Sudbury by 2017 remain on track today.

In the past four years, the Northern Highways Program has invested a record total of $1.377 billion in repair, expansion and safety improvement projects. Travelers on Northern Ontario's highways have benefited from the expanded roads, improved surfaces, increased passing lanes, and numerous other improvements. This year, Ontario again demonstrates its support and confidence in the North by investing a record $546 million in the Northern Highways Program.

The Ontario government recognizes the importance of bridges to the northern transportation network as they are an integral part of the highway system to connect communities and provide access to economic opportunities. That is why the government is investing an additional $164 million over five years for bridge repair and replacement in Northern Ontario — with $11 million expected to be invested in 2008 as part of the Northern Highways Program.

Ontario is currently working with northerners to develop a Growth Plan for Northern Ontario to focus on achieving more sustained economic growth for the North. An integral part of the plan will be continued investments in northern highway infrastructure to improve safety, spur economic growth, create jobs and keep people and goods moving.