Armed with a strong majority vote by members of the Neskonlith Indian Band in the Chase area, B.C.’s transportation minister expressed confidence a project to four-lane the Trans-Canada Highway through deadly Hoffman’s Bluff could begin this fall.
The band reported a referendum of members, including those who live off-reserve, was strongly in favour of upgrades to the highway west of Chase through Hoffman’s Bluff.
It has been the site of numerous fatal collisions for decades.
Those fatalities included Neskonlith elders.
“To receive a mandate, what I’m told is 97 per cent in favour, is an outstanding signal of support for the chief and the project,” Transportation Minister Todd Stone said of the band and Chief Judy Wilson.
Phase 2 of the overall project, designed to eventually four-lane the Trans-Canada Highway between Kamloops and Chase, is slated to cost $42 million for a three-kilometre section of roadway squeezed between the South Thompson River on one side and cliffs on the other.
The federal government has committed $18 million to the project.
Next steps are to sign an accommodation agreement with the band and then receive approval from Ottawa. Stone said he doesn’t expect delays at either step following the strong vote in favour of the project by the band.
With that in mind, a tender for the project could go out in late spring, with construction possible in fall.
The widening is part of a larger election commitment by the B.C. Liberals to spend $650 million on the Trans-Canada Highway between Kamloops and the Alberta border.
Under Stone’s leadership, the ministry recently came to an agreement on First Nations remains thought to be several-hundred years old that were in the path of the highway project several kilometres east of the Monte Creek interchange.
The Shuswap Nation Tribal Council originally backed a demand the remains be untouched; however, the Neskonlith band agreed last year that the remains could be entombed deeper beneath the highway.
