After encountering the aftermath of two deer strikes in as many weeks along a stretch of Highway 8 on the way to Hecla Island, a Gimli commercial fisher is questioning why the provincial government hasn’t maintained the vegetation beside the highway.
A five-mile stretch of Highway 8 from the junction of Pine Dock Road northwards has bush growing too close to the highway and trees in the ditch, making it ideal habitat for deer, said commercial fisher Robert T. Kristjanson, who lives in Gimli and commutes regularly to and from Grindstone to work during the commercial fishing seasons.
“All the way down the line when you’re driving to Grindstone, the trees are almost growing over top of you,” said Kristjanson. “On the south side of the highway, the bush is growing right to the road.”
A few weeks ago, he said he stopped to assist a young couple who had struck a deer early in the morning and were stranded on the highway. The girl was in shock.
“I saw the young girl, 18 years old maybe, standing on the highway with her boyfriend beside her. They had just run into the deer that came from the south side of the highway. There are so many deer here,” said Kristjanson. “This little girl was in shock; I could see it in her eyes. I have served in the Canadian Coast Guard for 45 years; I have seen shock. I asked her if they needed a ride to Gimli hospital or somewhere else they wanted to go, but she wanted to wait for her mother to come get them. I’m still sick about it because I’ve got grandkids.”
The five-mile stretch of vegetation “inches closer every day,” he said. Some of the spruce trees in the ditch are about 10 feet high.
“The province doesn’t cut the grass. They go along and cut grass three feet off the highway and forget about the rest of this [five-mile stretch] because there are trees in the ditch and they can’t get around them and won’t cut them down,” he said. “This is our main highway.”
Kristjanson said people pay high insurance rates on their vehicles. People who rely on their vehicles for work are out of luck if they strike a deer because MPI [Manitoba Public Insurance] won’t loan them a truck while their vehicle is being assessed.
According to MPI’s latest available Traffic Collision Statistics Report (from 2022), five per cent of all collisions were caused by the action(s) of a wild animal.
Last week on his way to work, Kristjanson said he encountered a large dead deer on the highway along that stretch, but there was no vehicle around.
The condition of highways can impede the smooth operation of commerce, said Kristjanson. And Highway 8 is a main artery used by commercial fishers, anglers, farmers, tourists and truckers carrying goods to and from communities.
“I travel back and forth on this highway for work. Everything on the highway is commerce-related. Farmers and fishers and other trades moving their grain, timber, fish and other products to market,” he said. “And a road has to be in suitable condition to allow commerce to proceed.”
The Express reached out to the department of transportation regarding vehicle collisions with deer, asking how often the department is supposed to mow the verge and cut trees along the five-mile stretch of Highway 8 from the Pine Dock Road.
A spokesman said the department inspected that stretch of Highway 8 and found the brush there posed no sight-line concerns.
“Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure’s (MTI) current practice is to mow ditches and boulevards along all provincial roadways twice per year. Ideally, this occurs once during summer and again in fall. The department works to schedule mowing early enough to address driver visibility concerns, but late enough to minimize vegetation regrowth before winter to mitigate snow drifting. MTI staff monitor areas during summer and fall to identify possible safety concerns with sight lines and address these as required,” said the spokesperson. “Department staff have completed all mowing for this fall and have inspected the site on Provincial Trunk Highway 8, confirming that the brush does not pose a sight line concern.”
Having roads in suitable condition is a going concern on the west side of the Interlake in the provincial riding of Lakeside, which includes the communities of Stonewall, Warren, Woodlands, Balmoral, Argyle and Stony Mountain. In this case it’s provincial roads or secondary arteries.
Lakeside MLA Trevor King said his constituents have been “raising the alarm” about PR 323 and PR 220, in particular, for “months and months.”
King presented a lengthy grievance in the legislature on Oct. 8, listing “most” of the provincial roads in his riding that require repair.
Calling them the veins of rural Manitoba and vital connectors between communities, farms and businesses, King said:
“Yet, despite how important they are, these roads are falling apart while this government looks the other way. I’m talking about roads like PR 323 and PR 220 especially. But I can’t help but mention PR 321, PR 424, PR 334, PR 332, PR 322, PR 518, PR 427, PR 227 and PR 241, Honourable Speaker, which is most of the secondary PR roads in [the] constituency of Lakeside.”
PRs 323 and 220 are “vital” for farmers, businesses and families, he said. But after a light rain, they become impassable and vehicles need to be towed out. The poor condition of the roads affects commerce, teachers on their way to work in Hutterite colonies, kids on their way to school and emergency vehicles.
“These roads are key routes for hauling grain, delivering supplies and getting kids to school. Yet they remain in such poor shape that even basic travel is becoming dangerous,” said King.
The roads are subject to deep ruts, soft shoulders, standing water and “washouts that appear faster than they can be repaired,” he said. And the problem doesn’t lie with the workers who maintain the roads for the provincial government.
“It is with the priorities and leadership at the ministerial level,” he said. “All of these roads lack material to maintain them properly, to withstand any amount of rain or spring thaw.”
Tabling photos showing the condition of the roads after a recent rainfall, King asked NDP transportation and infrastructure minister Lisa Naylor why the government has let “critical provincial roads” fall apart throughout Lakeside, as well as throughout the “rest of the province,”
Naylor said the condition of provincial roads stems from the action of the previous provincial Progressive Conservative government, which neglected to repair them.
“If members opposite think that these roads have fallen into disrepair over one year or two years, they are … sorely mistaken,” said Naylor during question period. “This is the result of years of neglect by [m]embers opposite.”
The minister also added that the government is “fully focused” on infrastructure, and noted that the government announced investments this summer for rural Manitoba.
