Canada

Ice roads are fundamental to remote communities' survival, as winter is when they can haul in fuel tankers, lumber and other building supplies, and canned/bulk foods. To do it in summer means flying it in and that adds an astronomical transportation cost to the items.

I realize that it's their land and their reserve and it's vital to keep their culture alive, but if it were me? There is no justification, not financial, not cultural, not religious, that would keep me living in a place like that.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

"I've been having the talk with people in the community about how we've got to just get used to the snow machine ride again, and this is probably how we are going across the lake this winter," said David McKenzie, executive director of Temagami First Nation.

About 245 people live on Bear Island in the middle of the lake, and during the winter, they depend on the ice road for getting back and forth to the mainland for everything from doctor's appointments, to groceries to employment.

The thousands of people who live on Ontario's James Bay Coast are also dealing with a shorter driving season every winter.

It's no surprise the construction of ice roads is delayed for many Indigenous communities for Sudbury researcher David Pearson.

Pearson, an emeritus professor at Laurentian University, receives regular updates from Indigenous Services Canada about the winter road season for communities in Ontario's far north.

"The only thing that can be done, and it would be very expensive, and we're talking about hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars, is to connect those communities with what we call all-weather roads," he said.

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