PIKANGIKUM — Most winter roads to remote First Nations in Northwestern Ontario are now open to light loads only.
“The past couple of days we had it closed to heavy traffic, (and open to) just light small vehicles,” Pikangikum First Nation council member Richard Keeper said Feb. 26.
He said a spell of warmer weather made the winter road to Pikangikum, 100 kilometres north of Red Lake, a tad iffy.
“But I think we’re open now because we’re going to have somebody monitoring the road and they’re going to be working on the road daily as the heavy trucks come in,” he added.
Pikangikum is not alone among northwest First Nations throttling down winter road traffic.
Sandy Lake First Nation, for example, closed its winter road to transport trucks on Sunday.
The decision was “due to warm weather conditions” and effective “till further notice,” the Treaty 5 nation 225 kilometres northeast of Red Lake said in a social media post.
The post also advised anyone using the ice road to carry a tow rope or cable, an axe and a shovel.
The Northern Roads webpage operated by Nishnawbe Aski Nation classified Sandy Lake, as of Feb. 21, as open to light loads. Nearly all other First Nations in that part of Northwestern Ontario were also listed as open to light loads, with the exception of North Spirit Lake (full loads), Pikangikum (partial) and McDowell Lake, where an ice road was under construction.
Only two First Nations east of North Spirit Lake and Sandy Lake in Northwestern Ontario are marked as open to full loads: North Caribou Lake and Neskantaga.
In Pikangikum, Keeper said he expects the community’s winter road could be open another month. But he added that it’s hard to predict because “it all depends on the weather.”
He said he hopes there are still a few weeks left to his Treaty 5 community’s winter road season “because we got quite a bit of stuff that needs to come in.”
Housing supplies and fuel are among those critical items, he said.
— NWOnewswatch
