By Pete McIntyre

MLA flooded with calls over highway maintenance

Jan 17, 2020 | 5:10 AM

Eric Foster says he’s had more calls and emails over the state of local highways the last few weeks, than he’s had on any other issue over his 11 years in office.

The MLA for Vernon-Monashee says icy, unplowed and dangerous roads have been the most common concerns.

“People got used to a standard, and that is what they expect, and they didn’t get it. And the people from AIM acknowledge that they had some problems,” said Foster.

Foster told Vernon Matters the Transportation Ministry is working with the contractor, AIM Roads, which apparently wasn’t able to keep up to the snowfall due to equipment issues.

“They’ve hired some contract machinery in the last little while to get caught up and be ready, but the amount of snow we had over New Year’s and that short period, it’s pretty tough to get everything open in a day. But in some case, it was four or five days before people could get into their roads,” said the veteran Liberal MLA.

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Foster says the ministry has “written-up” the company seven times for not meeting the standards of its contract since AIM took over in April, but he feels the problems can be fixed.

“I know the [ministry] is working with the contractor, and I’m hopeful we’ll see the contractor get everything in line. Writing people up, or other methods they might have, that’s not what we’re looking for. We’re looking for the roads to be safe for people to drive on. However we accomplish that, that’s the goal,” said Foster.

The District of Coldstream wrote to the province over its concerns of a lack of timely action by the contractor to clear snow and ice from Highway 6, claiming it was creating dangerous conditions.

“These guys (AIM) are going to have to pick-up their game. They want to pick-up their game. Nobody wants all the grief they’re getting right now from the ministry and public,” Foster added.

The Transportation Ministry has told media they are monitoring AIM’s performance, but add the challenging, exceptional conditions, with an estimated 150 centimetres of snow in the North Okanagan since December, also have to be considered.

by Pete McIntyre

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