IROQUOIS FALLS - Ahead of the snap election next week, the province has announced $20 million in "key upgrades" for Municipal Road/Highway 67.
Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria was in Iroquois Falls on Friday (Jan. 24) for the announcement. The project details and when the work will be done are not known yet, the news release says those will be decided with local stakeholders.
In 2024, the City of Timmins estimated it would cost about $1 million per kilometre to fix.
Municipal Road/Highway 67 is a 22-kilometre stretch that connects Highway 11 in Iroquois Falls to Highway 101 in Timmins.
It was known as Highway 67 until 1997 when the Conservative government of the day — led by North Bay's Mike Harris — downloaded it to the municipalities. Timmins is responsible for about 10 kilometres, with 12 kilometres belonging to Iroquois Falls.
Both municipalities have been lobbying the province to take back responsibility for the highway. Uploading the road back to the province was not mentioned in the announcement.
Drivers on the road are often dodging big potholes.
Large forest, mining and construction trucks drive it, Ontario Power Generation has been using it to haul resources to its Frederick House Lake dam project, and it's the only public access to Kettle Lakes Provincial Park. There are also cottages and year-round homeowners in the area.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has confirmed he's calling an early election, with the writ dropping on Wednesday, Jan. 29.
Iroquois Falls Mayor Tory Delaurier is the Progressive Conservative candidate for Timiskaming-Cochrane.
In the weeks leading up to the last provincial election in 2022, the PCs made a similar $74 million commitment for the Connecting Link in Timmins. At that time, George Pirie was Timmins mayor and running for the PCs. Pirie went on to win the election, ousting the longtime MPP and turning the riding blue for the first time in decades.
