The Oct. 9 announcement that design work will begin next spring on a new swing bridge at Little Current was welcome news to Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige.
Planning for a replacement of the 112-year-old span crossing the North Channel has been in the works for roughly a decade.
But with the province awarding Stantec Engineering the $9-million design contract, preliminary work is expected to get underway early in the season, sparking excitement among those who rely on the bridge for crucial services.
“The Little Current Swing Bridge is an essential lifeline for all of us, all of us who live on Manitoulin Island,” said Debassige, who hails from M’Chigeeng First Nation, during a livestreamed press conference.
“The very first time I was ever on a bridge was to leave this Island, and that's because I was born here, like many of the residents here today.”
Debassige spoke from Little Current, with the swing bridge in the background, alongside Premier Doug Ford; George Pirie, minister of northern economic development and growth; Greg Rickford, minister of Indigenous affairs and First Nations economic reconciliation; Bill Rosenberg, the MPP for Algoma – Manitoulin; and Al MacNevin, the mayor of the Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands (NEMI), which includes Little Current.
Islanders rely on the bridge not only to access health care and education, but also to bring across essential supplies.
Debassige said many residents are looking to purchase modular homes, but the components can't fit across the bridge. Instead, people have to pay for barges to ferry the pieces across. A wider, newer bridge will help, she said.
“So this is a welcome announcement to Manitoulin as a whole, to our First Nations, and I’d like to thank our provincial government, our premier, for being here with us,” Debassige said.
“It's not too often we have a premier that has this much heart and dedication for the people of the North.”
Because of the bridge’s advanced age, breakdowns have become more frequent, causing traffic disruptions and skyrocketing maintenance costs.
As early as 2017, the Ministry of Transportation confirmed the bridge would need replacing, and a preferred design for the new bridge was revealed in 2021. Two years later, the MTO said it was going ahead with property acquisition, right-of-way designation, and detailed design plans.
But little has been said since then to indicate the project was advancing toward construction.
Though Ford couldn’t pinpoint when construction would start or how long it would take, he vowed to use his influence to get it done as quickly as possible.
“We got to push it as quickly as we can,” Ford said. “So, I think, I'm hearing next season they're going to start early in the season.
“We just got to go full steam on it and do whatever it takes to get the bridge, because this is an economic corridor that changes people's lives.”
MacNevin, who has been vocal about his desire to see the project move forward, noted that the bridge replacement has become the go-to topic of conversation in the community.
In the past, he’s spoken about the difficulties his community faces when the bridge breaks down, resulting in backups in both directions along Highway 6.
Public works staff have to be redeployed to deal with traffic snarls, and travellers become frustrated when their travel plans are delayed because of bridge malfunctions.
It’s a hit to the island’s economic development; in particular its bustling tourism industry, which sees Manitoulin’s population triple over the summer months.
“This is really an exciting day for our council, myself, our community, and I think for anyone living on Manitoulin Island, to hear that the project for the Manitoulin swing bridge is moving forward into that detailed design stage,” MacNevin said.
“We're very excited to see this next step take place.”
In his parting comments, MacNevin said Ford and the other dignitaries would leave with gifts of swing bridge-themed sweatshirts to take home with them, “just to make sure that nobody forgets about the event today.”
Completed in 1913 as a rail crossing before being converted for vehicular traffic, the single-lane bridge crosses the North Channel in the upper part of Georgian Bay in Lake Huron. It provides the only year-round vehicular access between Manitoulin and the rest of Ontario.
While the bridge remains closed to marine traffic through the winter months, during the summer, it swings open once per hour, every hour, to let boats pass through the channel.
The new bridge will be similar to the old one — a through truss swing bridge — but it will be oriented west of the existing bridge.
Features will include two lanes, a sidewalk on the west side, and 1.5-metre shoulders to accommodate cyclists. The approach will include traffic lights and lanes for vehicles to queue, similar to what’s there now.
These changes are expected to improve traffic and user access, decrease maintenance costs, and make crossing generally more reliable.