LLRIB Promised Stanley Mission Highway Repairs

LLRIB Promised Stanley Mission Highway Repairs

Friday, December 04, 2009 at 13:20

A band councillor from Stanley Mission says the minister of Highways has at last promised to improve the crumbling highway into his community.

Brian Hardlotte is part of a Lac La Ronge Indian Band delegation that travelled to the legislature yesterday to hear Cumberland MLA Doyle Vermette present a petition from 400-plus northern residents.

The petition asks that Hwy. 915 be drastically improved — and ideally re-built — to prevent accidents like the one that killed a Stanley Mission resident less than two months ago.

After the session, Highways minister Jim Reiter sat down with the eight-member delegation — including elected officials, a band elder and community members — to work out a plan for both short- and long-term repairs.

Hardlotte says he has the sense Reiter was actually listening to their concerns, and that changes — from proper signage to concrete barriers on tight curves — will be coming soon.

“I’m pretty satisfied, because at least we had that meeting and at least we’re doing something now. … Our elders from our community told us to try and do something and work with the government — let them be aware of the shape of our highways in the north,” he says.

If the province doesn’t follow through with its commitments, though, Hardlotte says he will “keep on them” until they do.