The MTO has taken steps ahead of this winter hoping to address concerns raised in what was a scathing report from Ontario’s Auditor General last spring over winter road maintenance contracts that since 2009 moved to a performance based contract model. Gordon Rennie is with the MTO regional office in North Bay and he says a new provision was successfully negotiated in the contract for the Sault service area in providing dedicated patrolling…

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk says the province was successful in reducing and containing escalating winter maintenance costs when moving to a performance based model in 2009 giving contractors full autonomy in determining how they would get the work done.  This led to the province primarily choosing contractors on the basis of the lowest bid—-bidders that in many cases did not have sufficient equipment to do the work.  Rennie says a main focus was to make sure that all 20 service areas in the province will be fully equipped…

The MTO is looking to better prepare motorists when they hit the road this winter.  Rennie says improvements have been made to their website and they include access to more highway cameras—–including 7 in the Sault area…

There will be 174 cameras province wide and you can access the MTO website travel portal at ontario.ca/511.  The 7 area camera locations include highway 17 east in the Desbarats, Thessalon and Elliot Lake turnoff areas and highway 17 north in the Goulais River, Montreal River Harbour, Lake Superior Provincial Park and Wawa and White River areas.