Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

YELLOWHEAD SAFETY

‘Disappointed but not surprised’: North Thompson mayors didn’t find provincial budget dollars to improve Highway 5N

Feb 23, 2024 | 5:30 PM

BARRIERE, B.C. — Leaders in the North Thompson say they’ll have to continue advocating for provincial dollars to improve safety along the area’s main highway, after not seeing Highway 5 North listed in the B.C. Budget spending plans.

“I’m disappointed, but not surprised,” said Barriere’s mayor, Ward Stamer.

Stamer is one of several leaders in the North Thompson region who has been pushing for significant money to be spent on Highway 5N. Some of the work he’d like to see done includes increasing lighting along the route, adding more four-lane sections and passing lanes for the highway.

The corridor has seen several fatal vehicle crashes in recent years, and with the volume of semi traffic coming through on a daily basis, Stamer says safety needs to be prioritized on a large scale.

“I just find it a little bit disheartening when now it’s looking like approximately $2 billion has been spent from Kamloops to the Alberta border on Highway 1, and really all we keep hearing is they’ve spent $21 million on a couple of passing lanes (for Highway 5N),” said Stamer. “That’s not good enough.”

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Further up the highway, Clearwater’s Mayor Merlin Blackwell says he had hoped this week would bring good news for their road situation, but was disappointed to not see the Yellowhead listed in the funding project plans.

“Myself, Ward Stamer, and (Simpcw First Nation) Chief George Lampreau have a meeting in the next few weeks with Transportation Minister (Rob) Fleming, and we’re going to bring this stuff up again,” reiterates Blackwell. “But you know, without seeing any basic committment in the budget, I mean how many years is it going to take to get two, three, four extra passing lanes that we need and other safety improvements up and down this corridor?”