Hwy 17 approach to the Spanish River bridge. — image © Shore Report
In the early morning of Friday, June 13th, two transports collided exactly where northern Highways 17 and 69 meet in Sudbury. One of the drivers died on the scene. The other was delivered to hospital with serious injuries. Hwy 17 was closed at the 69 overpass in both directions until approximately 7:30 that evening while police investigated and reconstructed the accident, and the scene was cleared and cleaned.
It was just the latest deadly accident in a season of fatalities on the North Shore region’s key pieces of infrastructure — our provincial highways.
Two days earlier, a 69-year-old Ottawa resident was killed in a car/truck collision outside Pointe au Baril on Hwy 69. That horrible accident followed closely on the death of an 88-year-old Noëlville resident, also on Hwy 69. Both these collisions closed the highway.
Another collision near Nairn Centre on Friday, June 13 closed Highway 17 overnight, and a brush fire the very next day near the same stretch of the TransCanada again shut down the highway.
A CBC report form last year reveals startling lapses in Ontario transport training. — image courtesy CBC.
Shore Report staff drive both Hwy 17 and Hwy 69 regularly; and it is the rare trip where we do not feel endangered, either by road conditions, weather, wildlife or, more often, other drivers and the inescapable reality that there exists no central barrier to oncoming vehicles. Commercial transports on these roadways are a special case. The catch-all issue of driver training, certification, and active regulation of commercial transport through Ontario’s north has been a growing concern for years now. Last year, CBC’s Marketplace released a report showing the “system for testing truck drivers in Ontario has been compromised by bribes, forged documents and rigged testing.”
Of course, the problem is bigger than just transports. All drivers on the roads play a role. Incidents of speeding, careless driving, and stunt driving are regularly reported by the OPP. A recent stunt driving charge had the culprit travelling at 156 km/hr on Hwy 17. That kind of speed would be wildly irresponsible on a four-lane divided 400-series highway with excellent wildlife barriers. There isn’t a patch of 17 where such driving is not just an invitation to catastrophe.
A group of northern MPPs has had enough. Introduced for first reading on June 4th, the Northern Highway 11 and 17 Safety Act, 2025 “mandates scale and inspection stations on the routes to operate at least 12 hours daily, sufficient enforcement of the Highway Traffic Act, mandatory testing of truck drivers for commercial licensing by examiners certified by the Ministry of Transportation, and restores management of winter highway maintenance on Highways 11 and 17 to the Ministry of Transportation.”
Mushkegowuk—James Bay MPP Guy Bourgouin is the Opposition Critic for Natural Resources and Forestry. — image courtesy the Ontario Legislature
Sponsored entirely by members of the Ontario NDP — MPPs Guy Bourgouin (Mushkegowuk–James Bay), John Vanthof (Timiskaming–Cochrane), and Lise Vaugeois (Thunder Bay–Superior North) — it is unclear if the majority Progressive Conservative government of Premier Ford will give the bill much consideration.
“This is a commonsense, non-partisan issue,” noted MPP Vanthof. “For too long, Northern Ontarians have had to live with risk that would never be tolerated elsewhere. We need to take action before more lives are lost on roads that are essential to our communities, industries, and First Nations.”
The NDP’s Bill is short and succinct, calling for minimum standards for inspection staffing, training, police enforcement, and winter road maintenance. As such, it seems more a conversation starter, than a detailed solution.
2025 NDP Algoma-Manitoulin candidate, David Timeriski, talks about northern roads.
The need for increased transport inspections has been a concern for a long time along the North Shore. During the last provincial election, a local candidate called out the problem directly. Running for Algoma-Manitoulin, the NDP’s David Timeriski is an active-duty paramedic who has worked the highways for years. Improvement to the highways and to local healthcare were Timeriski’s twin issues during the campaign. He came in second to the PC’s Bill Rosenberg in a contest that saw significant vote share bled from the NDP by Independent (and former NDP) candidate Michael Mantha.
“Highway 108 and 17 has a truck inspection station,” Timeriski noted. “[When I was a child], those lights were flashing all the time for the truck inspections. That station barely operates [now]; there’s no fulltime operations anymore.”
Highway 17 has seen a series of horrific accidents born of the necessity for cars, transports, and horse-drawn transportation forced to share the same poorly maintained area. In fact, it could be argued that the design of the main corridor through the region is now simply insufficient for the amount and types of traffic that use it. Locals are very concerned about the state of transport inspection and training on our roads.
“Everybody is telling me the highways, the safety, the snow removal,” he says, “all these are concerning everybody up and down the North Shore. Our highways could be widened, and we need to shore up the sides of the highway for the horse and buggy carriages.”
While legislative focus on northern highway safety is welcome, some are saying this particular Private Member’s Bill is not demanding enough. The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) was quick with their analysis, and claim the proposed legislation “falls short,” pointing especially to the 12-hour staffing of inspection stations.
The Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, Ontario’s Minister of Transport — image courtesy the Ontario Legislature
The OTA indicates that Ontario Transport Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria is looking at 24-hour inspection staffing, though no such initiative from the government is currently verifiable. Just before this year’s provincial election, Minister Sarkaria was challenged in North Bay on his knowledge of and intentions for northern highway infrastructure. An excellent report at BayToday.ca indicates the government is “looking at a variety of measures” to improve training, inspections and overall safety.
While the government “looks,” will the Opposition motion deliver? How much longer must Northern Ontario residents accept the significantly higher risks on our highways?
Shore Report will continue to follow this story, and wishes all of our readers safe roads. Drive with care.
Very well written! As a former paramedic who’s coverage area was the very highway you wrote about, I can’t stress enough the need for something to be done.