Section of Highway 9 near Hudson Bay. (Submitted photo/Kelly Stonehouse) 

By Doug Lett

Hudson bay highway concerns

Petition over condition of highway near Hudson Bay

Nov 14, 2022 | 4:00 PM

A Hudson Bay man has started an online petition to draw attention to Highway 9, south of the town.

“By the end of winter it looks like somebody fired mortars at it,” said Kelly Stonehouse, who started the petition on change.org

“It’s got regular potholes, but it’s also got really big potholes and it’s got ruts in it, which I’ve never seen in a highway before,” said Stonehouse.

He’s not alone. Highway 9 has made CAA Saskatchewan’s 10 worst roads contest since 2018 when it placed 5th. In 2021 and 2022 it was voted the third worst road in the province.

And Stonehouse’s petition is only the latest. A petition calling on the government to fix Highway 9 between Hudson Bay and Preeceville was presented in the Legislature in April of this year.

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Stonehouse said he travels a lot on highways in the region for his work, but also as a volunteer hockey coach. And he worries the condition of Highway 9 is going to get people hurt.

“It’s becoming more and more apparent that it’s becoming a danger. I’m hearing lots of people are having damage done to their vehicles, cracked oil pans. We got lots of people travelling those highways, we got hockey, we got sledders, we got lots of logging trucks. It’s a recipe for disaster,” said Stonehouse.

For its part, the Ministry of Highways said in a statement that work has been done on Highway 9 — and it is being monitored for safety.

“The Ministry of Highways regularly monitors and maintains Highway 9 near Hudson Bay. The ministry invested more than $535,000 in routine maintenance last year on this highway. Over the past five years, it has received more than $2.6 million in maintenance,” said the statement.

“The ministry is investigating the need for any additional improvements. The investigation includes an annual review of traffic counts, road conditions and safety issues,” the statement added.

Stonehouse and others have lobbied before and he said it seems to come down to the fact the province has many thousands of kilometres of highways to maintain.

“We’ve got a lot of highways, what makes yours so special, that’s what I take from it anyway,” he said.

“But I don’t see how it’s over a decade without any substantial work being done on that stretch of highway,” he added.

As of Monday, over 300 people have signed the petition.

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