TORONTO — Construction has started on 5 km of four-lane Hwy. 11/17 from McGuire Rd. to Coughlin Rd., Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said Monday in Shuniah, as he faced questions about whether the rest of northwestern Ontario should get cheaper 2+1 highways instead of full twinning. Sarkaria and Northern Economic Development Minister George Pirie framed the cut as the next piece of more than 100 km of Trans-Canada widening between Thunder Bay and Nipigon, and said the Shuniah truck inspection station will run 24 hours.Sarkaria tied the work to a $31-billion, 10-year provincial spend on highways, roads, and bridges and to the government’s line that interprovincial trade barriers cost the country close to $200 billion a year. Ottawa is contributing up to $26.05 million through the New Building Canada Fund. Two new bridges will cross the Black Sturgeon River. Pirie said Ontario is still asking Ottawa to treat northern highways as a national priority and to speed federal approvals.A Northern Policy Institute paper says twinning makes sense on high-volume runs such as Thunder Bay to Nipigon and Thunder Bay to Shabaqua Corners, but a 2+1 model is cheaper and faster for much of the northwest — in a year of highway deaths. Asked about that finding, Sarkaria said Queen’s Park will use both. Some North Bay-area work starts as 2+1; this stretch will be fully twinned. He said permitting and design rules have been rewritten so projects hit the market faster, and more of that will show “over the next couple of months.”.Sarkaria said transportation enforcement officers ran close to 120,000 inspections in 2025, up nearly 60% from 2024, at scales and roadside. The province hired more than 100 officers last year, more than 40 of them for northern Ontario. Last week MTO and the colleges ministry standardized entry-level truck training so schools can be audited and shut down. A six-month Canadian Class G requirement before a commercial licence is due in coming weeks or months; residency checks at ServiceOntario are already in. He said the OPP has charged people over fake tests and DriveTest irregularities. Holland pointed to OPP stunt-driving charges in the northwest.The province said it finished widening from Coughlin Rd. to Hwy. 582 and from Hwy. 587 to Pearl Lake in November 2025, including two bridges over the Pearl River. Detail design is underway for 7.6 km from Pearl Lake to the CPKC overhead at Ouimet, and preliminary design for 11 km from Hwy. 582 to Dorion East Loop Rd.
