Traveling on La Route du Nord, the turn off going to Nemaska located between Chibougamau and Mistissini, is extremely dangerous and unsafe, in terms of the volume of transport trucks, meeting them face-on and being followed by one.
Traveling along this route is now very different subsequent to the Inmet mining and forestry companies that have established themselves on Category II lands.
These trucks drivers have little if any consideration to other drivers and vehicles.
They overload their trucks and have no respect toward speed limits, not to mention making little or no allowances for the other vehicle traveling on the road.
The speed limit on gravel roads is a maximum of 70 km/h and the weight restriction for a transport truck is a nominal capacity of 110 tons, and these restrictions are not respected at all.
We have Cree people traveling extensively on this route to their bush caps, and people from Nemaska and Mistissini traveling on this route.
As this road is gravel, it is even more dangerous particularly in the summer because of the dust problem and in the winter given the extreme weather conditions.
There was one car accident, in the summer of 1995, in which Cree workers from Mistissini were seriously injured on this route while returning to their work site.
We need to address this issue and bring it to the attention of the Cree population and especially to the Cree leadership. “Who should look after the people’s safety on this route?”
