February 17, 2025 • 27 mins
Canadians, are we missing out on a world-class highway system? Join us as we shed light on the challenges facing Canada's highway infrastructure, with a special focus on Ontario's Highway 69. Despite being a powerhouse in terms of economic contribution, Ontario lags behind when it comes to a comprehensive highway system akin to those found in the U.S. We'll explore the slow journey of expanding this crucial route to four lanes, hindered by differing provincial priorities and the absence of a national standard, while also drawing comparisons to British Columbia's highway development efforts to maintain natural beauty. Explore the intriguing disparities in Canadian infrastructure as we contrast Ontario's underdeveloped highway systems with the substantial investment funneled into Toronto, raising questions about provincial fund allocation. We share personal anecdotes of traveling through Ontario's often congested two-lane roads, dealing with unexpected delays and detours. Imagine a world where Canada adopts American interstate standards—could this solve some of our infrastructure woes or create new challenges? We ponder this intriguing hypothetical scenario, examining its potential implications for Canadian provinces. Discover the transformative power of a national highway pact and its promise of boosting the transportation industry and creating jobs. With over half of Canada's GDP dependent on transport trucks, expanding our highway networks is more than just a convenience—it's an economic necessity. We invite you to contribute your thoughts and join the conversation on this critical topic. Let's consider how improved infrastructure planning and execution can support economic growth, safety, and connectivity across our vast nation. Everett J.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, the year was 1991.
My parents had recently separated and as I
was heading down south constantly to go see
my mother, I noticed something was changing.
Something was growing.
The government was actually starting to
invest money in four-leaning Highway 69
further north, but only doing 10 to 20
kilometers at a time.
This went on for about three or four years
(00:20):
and then all of a sudden, it started taking
two to three years to do them and the
sections got smaller and smaller, and then
we'd go years between anything happening.
My home city ranks number three for gdp for
the province of ontario and yet, even
though it's been over a hundred thousand
people since the 1950s and ranked in one of
the top 10 biggest cities in the entire
(00:42):
province back well, let's just say, up
until the mid-70s it still has never had a
proper infrastructure built to it.
There is no four-lane highway heading to it.
Why?
Because it's in Northern Ontario.
But there's another reason why Because the
province of Ontario and the country of
Canada still can't agree on what defines a
proper infrastructure.
There are no set rules in Canada to build
(01:03):
interstate systems similar to the United
States.
Every province has its own governing body
and its own way of dealing with what
defines expansion of highway systems, and
I've come to learn this over my lifetime of
traveling back and forth down Highway 69,
going to Toronto.
Sure, we're now down to 68 kilometers left
of Four Lane, but when I was a kid, at
(01:25):
eight years old, when my parents got
divorced and they started four laning for
the first time in four years, we had 200
kilometers.
I was eight.
I'm turning 42 this year.
You can't tell me it takes that long to
four lane, 200 kilometers of roadway.
So today Autolux is going to take a look at
the reason why the province of Ontario is
not unlike any other province in the entire
(01:45):
country of Canada and why Canada doesn't
have an interstate system.
Welcome back to the Autolux podcast.
I am your host, as always, the doctor to
the automotive industry, mr Everett Jay,
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(02:06):
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So, like I said in the beginning, a
canadian interstate system.
Well, if you're like myself and you've
traveled across the great white north, I've
literally been from sea to sea on our
highway system.
I have traversed, except for a portion of
(02:49):
the Trans-Canada and Newfoundland, because
it's the only province I've been to.
I have traversed every other portion of the
Trans-Canada Highway and while traversing
it, I've come to realize that there are
only two provinces in this entire country
that you have to travel on a two-lane
highway.
Why?
Because every other province except for
British Columbia and Ontario believe that
(03:10):
the Trans Canada is a vital piece of
infrastructure that needs to have the most
amount of money into it because, like I
said, it's a vital resource.
It's where all of our trade travel on the
Trans Canada traverses, from coast to coast
to coast, essentially because it actually
goes all the way up to Inovik.
Now we're not saying you need to four lane
and going all the way up to Inovik where
(03:31):
you know essentially there's barely
anything, because when you leave Dawson
City you're over six hours of nothing,
literal nothing.
One gas station in the middle and that's it.
But going from Victoria all the way out to
Nova Scotia, traveling along the
Trans-Canada Highway, nearly every major
portion of it is four-laned.
There's a section that goes out to the
(03:51):
Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia.
That's not complete but Nova Scotia is
working on it.
The reason why that section hasn't been
done is because it's low volume.
They have a four-lane limited access
highway going all the way to Halifax, so
you can go from Halifax all the way up and
down through the Southern Ontario Belt and
out to Windsor.
You can access every major area of the
(04:12):
United States.
On the East Coast of Canada they've
determined that every vital link road needs
to be expanded, whether it be limited
access four lane or limited access two lane.
It needs to be expanded For an area that
barely has any growth.
Like I said, when my parents divorced in
1991, the country of Canada had less than
30 million people.
We're literally sitting at about 24 million
(04:34):
people in this country.
We have literally just crossed the 40
million mark last year in 2024.
So we've added a ton of those people, but
where did they go?
Lower mainland, bc, st Lawrence, cua in
Quebec and southern Ontario, which is
essentially anywhere south of the Muskokas.
Besides that, a travel way between Calgary
and Edmonton are the only other areas in
(04:54):
the country.
That is substantially growth.
So why is it?
When I'm on the east coast of Canada, I'm
traveling on a four-lane highway?
Literally, trans-canada Highway through New
Brunswick is 100% four-lane highway.
Literally, trans-canada Highway through New
Brunswick is 100% four-lane.
I traveled out there back in the 90s after
my parents were divorced.
I think it was about 93, 94.
When we went out there they were building
their limited access freeway-style
(05:15):
four-lane highway in an area that had
cities smaller than my home city.
They were building these.
They were building them in Nova Scotia,
they were adding them to Newfoundland, all
from areas that don't have the same amount
of population as what runs between North
Bay and Sault Ste Marie, ontario.
Sault Ste Marie is nearly 80,000 people.
The city of Greater Sudbury is 168,000
(05:36):
people and the city of North Bay is
creeping closer to 60,000.
Doesn't seem like a lot, considering the
fact between Sudbury and the Sioux is three
hours and Sudbury and North Bay is an hour
and a half.
But when you're on the east coast of Canada,
from Edmonston all the way down to
Fredericton is nearly two hours, from
Fredericton to Moncton is nearly two hours
and then from Moncton to Halifax is nearly
three hours.
But they have a limited access highway and
(06:05):
at the time in the 90s, all three of those
cities, excluding Halifax, were all smaller
than both Sudbury and Sault Ste Marie.
But they built it.
They developed an interstate system because
they knew the trade routes would help
benefit their economy.
They knew people are more likely to travel
into areas with freeway access highways, if
not that, at least four-lane broken road
highways.
If you've traveled from Toronto all the way
up to North Bay, ontario, it's a four-lane
broken, not freeway style everywhere, but
(06:27):
broken highway.
That's why Highway 11 is not 411.
And the province of Ontario is one of the
few areas in the entire country that
actually has its own dedicated
interstate-style number codes for highways.
Anything marked 400 is limited access
throughways.
So Highway 11 going up to North Bay can't
be considered the 411 because it's not
limited access the whole way.
(06:47):
400 going all the way up to Parry Sound is
the 400.
Once complete, all the way to Sudbury, it
would be the 400 going from Toronto to
Sudbury.
Unfortunately, that's a 60-year-long
endeavor, considering the fact that Highway
69 wasn't even completed until the
mid-1960s and its four-laning started in
1978.
Nothing has been done.
The amount of traffic on Highway 17 between
(07:10):
North Bay and Sault Ste Marie far exceeds
the traffic that you'll find running up the
coast of New Brunswick.
And yet last summer, when I was traveling,
I decided to take the back route, go up
towards Bathurst, and it's a two-lane,
limited-access highway, but it was still
limited access.
It was's a two-lane, limited-access highway,
but it was still limited access.
It was still a free-flowing highway,
something we don't have in the North.
Now the question is why doesn't Canada have
(07:32):
an interstate system?
Well, like I said, in 1991, there was only
about eight and a half million people in
the province of Ontario, which made up a
third of the population of the entire
country of Canada.
Even to this day, ontario makes up a third
of the population of the entire province of
Canada, with over 10 million people in our
province with a population of over 40
million people, and out of that, over 65%
(07:53):
of the population runs between Pickering,
ontario, up as far north as Vaughan, over
as far west as Milton and curling all the
way around to Stoney Creek.
It's called the Greater Toronto-Hamilton
Corridor.
It's one megacity.
There's nearly over 7 million people within
it.
If you didn't know this, when you travel
through Toronto, the QEW is actually the
(08:14):
first limited access highway ever created
in all of North America.
The Americans basically gave birth to the
limited access highway.
They showcased it at the New York World's
Fair, but Canada was the first to implement
it.
The QEW was built for the Queen's arrival
in the 1950s, long before the interstate
system was put into play.
(08:36):
But why did the Americans build their
interstate system?
Yeah, they had the population to base it on,
but not everywhere had that population.
I've traveled all across the states.
I've been to 33 different states.
I've only been to one where I haven't been
to anything around it because I flew to it
for my brother's wedding.
But every other state I've driven through.
I've been through Montana.
I've been all the way to the tip of Florida.
I've been to every state on the eastern
(08:56):
seaboard, except for South Carolina.
I don't know why.
I guess because I-95 doesn't go straight
through it to the south or north, one of
the two and while traveling through a lot
of these, like montana, the state of
montana has a smaller population than all
of northern ontario but has an interstate
technically two interstates running right
through it.
They have their east west and they have a
north south line.
North south line is only made to connect to
(09:18):
the canadian border and then east west is
made so you can get across the country.
They built this system because every state
had to have an easily accessible highway
that was safe and flowed from state to
state.
Canada we have never enacted that.
Every province has its own set rules and
that's a big problem when you consider the
fact that over the next 30 years Canada is
(09:39):
going to be adding over another 20 million
people.
So we're going to finally hit 60 million
people within the next 30 years.
We're going to finally hit 60 million
people within the next 30 years.
We're going to need better highway systems.
We need better infrastructure to move
people along.
The province of BC has now outlined that
Highway 1, or the Trans-Canada Highway
along its southern corridor, from the
Alberta border all the way to Vancouver now
(10:00):
needs to be expanded.
They're not going full limited access In
some areas they're just doing four-lane
broken roads.
But they say it's because it's too costly
to move people out to build these highways.
It's like well, let me see, you've had 60
years to develop this system but have never
done it.
I get it.
You go traversing through these mass
mountains.
(10:20):
It's expensive to do it, but there are
areas along there that it wouldn't be so
expensive.
Let's take into consideration Sweden,
norway or Finland, who have developed
massive highways even through their
northern corridors.
And yet BC, which at one point was one of
the fastest growing provinces in the entire
country.
During the 90s, bc was our California.
If you live in Vancouver, you hardly ever
(10:41):
see snow, unless you go to the mountains.
It was a more temperate climate compared to
the rest of the country, so a lot of people
went, but they didn't didn't build a
limited access highway because they said it
would take away from their natural aspect
of their environment.
Well, go live in Kelowna, bc right now.
Go, actually just go onto Google Maps and
go over top of Kelowna and see how a city,
(11:03):
one of the fastest growing in the country,
what type of infrastructure it has for the
movement of people and goods.
See, people always see interstates and big
highways or freeways in cities as a major
investment.
That's just going to make it so that people
want to urbanize everything.
Well, there is some part of that, because
as they built them in California during the
1950s, they urbanized all the valley areas
(11:25):
and more people moved out and out and out
and out and eventually you got this mass
urbanization where tons of people had to
just utilize their vehicle and their
vehicle only.
We get that.
That's the reason why the city of Vancouver
has been so reluctant to build brand new
limited access throughways.
They now have a dedicated transport route
going north-south, because essentially
going north-south, coming off the
(11:46):
Trans-Canada Highway and having to go to
the States, you have to travel along
surface roads to make crossovers, to get
down there.
There is no freeway access unless you
actually take the transport route, which
isn't even fully limited access.
But what happens when you don't have
systems like this?
I see it all the time.
Just this past week, being wintertime, we
had a snowstorm.
It was very close to the city of North Bay
(12:07):
and Highway 17, running between Subway and
North Bay.
There are sections of it that, if it gets
shut down, you got to go way out of your
way.
I'll put this into my perspective.
Where my parents live, just west of Sudbury,
about an hour west, there's a certain
section where the highway has no way to go
around it.
So for a section roughly about 20
kilometers crossing the Spanish River, if
(12:28):
there is an accident there or if the bridge
collapsed, the only way around it is to go
all the way to Bruce Mines, take a highway
all the way up to Highway 101, cross over
towards Timmins and come all the way back
down.
An hour long drive into the city of Sudbury
in the middle of wintertime will take you
nearly eight and a half hours.
If you had to drive all the way down to
Highway 69 to go all the way around it, you
(12:53):
added two and a half hours to your trip.
I had a boss that was coming to work once.
They were coming from Thunder Bay all the
way to Sudbury, to our office, and the
Highway 17 was shut down and they had to go
take Highway 11.
It added ten and a half hours to their trip
because all we have are two-lane highways.
When there's an accident with a death on it,
the highway gets shut down between six to
(13:15):
eight hours.
That means goods crossing the country are
literally at a standstill for an entire
shift.
Okay, that's into perspective for you An
entire shift.
Sault Ste Marie is one of two steel cities
in the entire country, the other one being
Hamilton.
Hamilton has limited access freeways
everywhere around it.
It's a greater Toronto-Hamilton area.
(13:35):
It is the area that over 90% of the
infrastructure money for the province of
Ontario are injected into.
Yes, the rest of the province fights over
the remaining 10%.
Trust me, the government of Ontario refuses
to finish the highway, the 68 kilometers
coming to Sudbury, because the price tag is
nearly $3 billion.
Now, 20 years ago they said it was too
expensive when it was 120 kilometers at
(13:57):
$1.1 billion.
Back then.
That same year, they said $1.1 billion is
too expensive to finish the highway.
They wrote a check to put one kilometer of
collector lanes in Mississauga for $115
million.
They didn't even have an assessment done
and they wrote the check for it the year.
The Doug Ford government denied 69 being
finished.
He's saying nearly $3 billion is too
(14:18):
expensive to finish that for the traffic
volumes that we have.
Meanwhile they dumped over $6 billion into
the city of Toronto to expand its subway
lines, but they can't finish our highway.
They've been working on for 60 years, 60
years.
Yes, this entire country has an
infrastructure problem.
Recently, with Trump getting back into
power in the United States and him putting
(14:39):
out the idea of Canada becoming the 51st
state.
I always love to hear this and I laugh
about it.
I said you know, the funniest thing is if I
actually became the 51st state, you know
what would happen to the province of
Ontario in BC?
I'm'm like they'd be fucked literally.
I'm putting that right out there.
They would be 100% fucked because if canada
was a 51st state, the interstate law in the
(15:00):
united states would come into effect.
Now the prairies, their four-lane highways,
aren't fully limited access, not everywhere,
so for them it's just building bridges,
that's all it is.
That's not too bad, say miss, same as
Saskatchewan, manitoba, quebec, no problem.
East Coast already done.
Ontario Highway 17 is the Trans-Canada in
Ontario and the four-lane of 417 ends right
(15:23):
outside of Ottawa, just outside of Arnprior.
Ontario is where the 417, the four-lane
ends.
The next time you ever hit a four lane
highway is five hours later when you're
going through Subway.
You travel along a 20 kilometer section
built in 1981, when the government promised
a four lane highway, 17 for us, but didn't
(15:43):
they built 20 kilometers limited access.
Actually, it's not even fully limited
access, because the very last connection,
where the old highway, which is now 55,
regional Road 55, comes out, it's a
crossover onto the highway and, trust me,
there's at least three to six people killed
every year at that intersection, every year,
and they still refuse to do anything about
it.
After that, you hit another 40 kilometers
(16:04):
outside of Sault Ste Marie, ontario.
After you leave Sault Ste Marie, the next
time you hit a four-lane Acre crossing
section of highway.
It's just outside of Nipigon, ontario.
Nearly six and a half hours later, just
before that section is slowly being built
up.
Between there and Thunder Bay.
About two hours, you cross over a multitude
(16:24):
of different four-lane sections.
After Thunder Bay, you don't hit another
four-lane section of highway until you
cross over to the Manitoba border.
Another four-lane section of highway until
you cross over to the Manitoba border.
Right now they're starting to expand
Highway 17 to four-lane accurate crossings
from the Manitoba border all the way to
Kenora only because the province of
Manitoba fought with the province of
Ontario, stating the fact that most people
(16:44):
from the city of Winnipeg have camps in
Ontario by Kenora, not on Lake Winnipeg.
So they pushed us to expand our highway.
Outside of my door on 17, when I ride on,
it is over 1,500 kilometers from where I am
to the Manitoba border and I'm over five
hours away from Ottawa.
So from here it's in like 500 kilometers,
(17:04):
any of the 2,000 kilometers across the
province of Ontario.
The Trans-Canada Highway out of that 2,000
kilometers, the Trans-Canada Highway out of
that 2,000 kilometers, 120 kilometers of
that is four lanes.
So 1,880 kilometers across the province of
Ontario is two-lane standardized highway
that was built between the 50s and 60s.
(17:26):
You only have passing lanes.
This is the Trans-Canada Highway.
It traverses our entire country and it's
two-lane.
Pretty funny, huh.
Second largest country in the world, third
country in the world for oil, one of the
top countries in the world for mineral
reserves, one of the top countries in the
world for the amount of fresh water, and
(17:47):
yet if you want to cross this country, when
you get to the city of Sault Ste Marie,
it's actually safer for you to cross the
border into northern Michigan, cross the
top of the peninsula all the way across to
Wisconsin and Minnesota and come up by
Winnipeg, even though the third best drive
in the entire country for scenery is from
Batchewana Bay to Nipigon, ontario Highway
(18:08):
17.
I get it, if you four-laned it you would
lose that luster.
But I'm not saying full lane it.
I'm saying you need to create a two-lane,
dedicated highway.
Transports need a direct route and nothing
that's too close to the lake.
If they were pushed further back into the
mountains on a standard two-lane
transport-rated highway, essentially a 1
plus 2 highway like they have in northern
(18:31):
parts of Norway, sweden and Finland, you
can make it safer.
But that would be building proper
infrastructure, something that both the
province of Ontario and British Columbia
will never do.
Now think about it.
How much would it cost to four-lane 1,880
kilometers, in today's value, across the
complete Canadian Shield?
The easiest parts of that entire section to
(18:53):
four-lane are between North Bay, ontario,
and Sault Ste Marie.
There's a small section east of the city of
Sudbury where you travel through hard rock,
but the rest of it is lower level rock and
farmland which you can easily and cheaply
Four Lane.
Canada is stuck in a major infrastructure
deficit.
We've added more people in the past decade
to our country than we ever have in our
(19:15):
entire history.
Unfortunately, in this country we push
everybody towards five major cities
Montreal, toronto, ottawa, calgary or
Vancouver.
There's a lot more to Canada than just
these five cities.
And out of all those cities, only two of
them have ever built proper infrastructure
Calgary and Montreal.
Montreal is now realizing that it needs to
(19:35):
build better infrastructure within its
system.
It now needs to build HOV lanes and light
rail transit, because all of its main
limited access highways were built at a
time that it was then the car was king, but
public transit wasn't.
Now they're learning.
Public transit needs to be increased.
The city of Calgary has already been on top
of that.
Now they just need to expand their highway.
You see, the United States realized during
(19:57):
the 1950s, before they developed their
interstate system, that more and more goods
were being shipped by truck.
Trucks were faster than shipping by train.
Shipping by train is cheaper across longer
distances.
Trust me, the best thing you can do if you
want to ship across the country of Canada
is, when you get stuff to either North Bay
or Sudbury, put it on a train and ship it
all the way to Manitoba.
(20:18):
Once it hits Manitoba, put it on a truck
and ship it somewhere else.
You have to remember along the Highway 17
corridor or the Trans-Canada Highway in
Northern Ontario.
Along that portion it's roughly about
670,000 people.
In four major cities, there's over 100,000
other people that ride along Highway 11.
But consider the fact that when you get to
those major cities, all you need to do is
just have a few trucks go out Hell, even
(20:39):
from the city of Sudbury.
An intermodal facility there, the Thunder
Bay, would take so much more off of our
highways, but we still don't utilize rail
systems in this country to its proper
benefit.
The country of Canada relies so much on
truck transportation and yet the
infrastructure that the trucks have to
travel across in this country in some areas
(20:59):
is from the 1960s at the newest point.
When you hit the prairies, it's four-lane,
act-grade crossing highways from there
pretty much to just outside of Calgary.
Most major cities have limited access,
freeway style but besides that, most of
them are act-grade.
But there are four-lane highways.
Sure, you have to slow down while you're in
small towns for traffic lights, because
(21:20):
some of them don't have bridges.
And you do have to slow down, but besides
that, when you have a snowstorm you're not
directly head on with somebody else.
And yet also when they're out in the
prairies there's a lot more roads.
So when one road gets closed, it's like
southern Ontario when one road gets closed,
there's another road to take it.
You lose 15 minutes or travel, that's it.
But in select areas of this country, when
the roads are shut down from bad weather,
(21:42):
they're shut down and trade does not move.
The city of suburbia the government has
actually put it out we're the third highest
gdp out of every major city in the entire
province, with only the city of toronto and
the city of Guelph per capita GDP is higher
than us.
We outrank Ottawa and Hamilton for GDP per
capita.
(22:03):
Like per person in the city of Sudbury is
worth more Our full GDP, gross domestic
product for the entire country than cities
with four times more population than we
have.
It's kind of funny.
And yet our GDP rides on the fact that when
we ship stuff out, it may not get there on
time.
The funny thing is I know this firsthand
(22:24):
from jobs.
I've worked throughout my life trying to
plan around getting stuff delivered.
I don't know how many times I've had
contractors waiting on site for their
product get delivered and I have to call
them and tell them that the truck is
literally stuck on the highway.
You'll get your material tomorrow.
I would never have to deal with a situation
like that if I lived in a major city and
had proper infrastructure.
(22:45):
But Canada doesn't have a National Highway
Act.
The federal government has never enacted a
Federal Highway Act.
The last prime minister that even
considered it was Jean Chrétien in the 90s.
He wanted to create a National Highway Act
making the Trans-Canada Highway a national
important highway.
That had to be four-lane, limited access
(23:06):
everywhere in the country.
He was outranked by everyone else.
Everyone else in the government said no,
like Northern Ontario, certain areas in BC
and even out in the prairies or the East
Coast.
There's not enough population to warrant
this.
It's going to cost us so much money and
it's not going to benefit us.
Crap Bullshit.
Funny thing is is I wrote an article in
high school over 20 years ago that talked
(23:28):
about the benefits of limited access
interstate systems in the United States and
how the fact that the interstate system
helped build so many big cities.
The interstates literally built the
economies of so many small towns into small
cities.
Think about it Without an interstate going
to Mount Rushmore, do you think there'd be
any major cities close by?
(23:49):
No, without an interstate running through
Montana, do you think anybody in the United
States would know where Butte Montana is?
Besides the people that have watched Beavis
and Butthead and kind of laugh at.
You know Butthead says butt, peck and wipe
right, I've actually found them all on a
map.
No, you wouldn't.
You need the proper infrastructure for it,
and that's the problem.
Our country doesn't.
(24:09):
And if we're going to be adding another 20
million people to this country even though
where I live in Northern Ontario is lucky
if it's going to get 100,000 people of that
20 million you still need to develop the
proper infrastructure for an entire country
to operate as a singular unit.
Relying on the American interstate system
to move products between Southern Ontario
(24:31):
and the Western provinces just means that
Americans are going to stick it to you when
it comes to free trade agreements.
Americans know that we need their highway
systems to move stuff across this continent.
Why?
Because our country is too fucking cheap to
build a proper infrastructure that we
desperately need to move products along.
Our GDP could increase with a national
(24:52):
interstate system or, in this case, a
national interprovincial system.
Kretchen was on to something and,
unfortunately, unless the replacement for
Justin Trudeau in our country comes to an
agreement and actually states that we need
to get this put into place, it'll never
happen.
As you've already noticed, all provinces
except for two understand the importance of
our national highway.
(25:12):
So, in all reality, will it ever get done?
Will I ever be able to drive on a four-lane
highway from my home city four hours south?
My grandfather always told me he would
never see it.
My father didn't believe that he wouldn't,
but my father actually believes now he will
never see it, considering the fact that
he's turning 70 soon this year, and I
believe him.
I don't think he'll ever see that highway
finished.
(25:33):
I'll be lucky if my son becomes the first
generation in our family to drive on a
four-lane highway from our city to the
south.
Why?
Because of the highway standards set in
place by the province of Ontario.
They're set at a 95% capacity rating based
off of traffic volumes in the greater
Toronto area.
That is why, where every other province
(25:53):
bases it on overall traveling, which means
if a highway far exceeds 60% capacity over
a 24-hour period, at any point it's
expanded.
In Ontario it has to be 95% capacity for 24
hours to prove it needs to be expanded.
So, in all reality, our federal government
(26:13):
really needs to step in, put their foot
down and say say, we need a national
highway pact and because of that, canada
will never have its own interstate system.
So if you like this podcast.
Please like, share or comment about it on
any major social feeds or streaming sites
that you found the Autolux podcast on.
Go to the website.
Read some of the reviews, send us a comment.
Send us an email at email at autoluxnet and
(26:34):
tell us what you think about Canada
developing its own interprovincial highway
system.
Do we need a highway pact?
We sure we have areas that don't require a
big four lane highway, but when over 50% of
your gross product travels by transport
truck and moves across the entire country,
we can increase the amount of jobs in
transportation alone by creating a national
(26:57):
highway pact.
Tell me what you think, send in the
comments, send us an email and, like I said,
go to the website, read some of the reviews,
check out some of the ratings.
Go to corporate links website page, big or
small.
We have them all car copies from around the
globe on the autoluxnet website.
The autolux podcast is brought to you by
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If you like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email at autoluxnet.
(27:18):
So from myself, everett Jay, the crew over
at Ecom Entertainment Group, myself, the
owner, the operator and the host of the
Autolux podcast and the autoluxnet website.
Strap yourself in for this one fun wild
ride that the lack of an interstate will
take us on.
Well, the year was 1991.
My parents had recently separated and as I
was heading down south constantly to go see
my mother, I noticed something was changing.
Something was growing.
The government was actually starting to
invest money in four-leaning Highway 69
further north, but only doing 10 to 20
kilometers at a time.
This went on for about three or four years
(00:20):
and then all of a sudden, it started taking
two to three years to do them and the
sections got smaller and smaller, and then
we'd go years between anything happening.
My home city ranks number three for gdp for
the province of ontario and yet, even
though it's been over a hundred thousand
people since the 1950s and ranked in one of
the top 10 biggest cities in the entire
(00:42):
province back well, let's just say, up
until the mid-70s it still has never had a
proper infrastructure built to it.
There is no four-lane highway heading to it.
Why?
Because it's in Northern Ontario.
But there's another reason why Because the
province of Ontario and the country of
Canada still can't agree on what defines a
proper infrastructure.
There are no set rules in Canada to build
(01:03):
interstate systems similar to the United
States.
Every province has its own governing body
and its own way of dealing with what
defines expansion of highway systems, and
I've come to learn this over my lifetime of
traveling back and forth down Highway 69,
going to Toronto.
Sure, we're now down to 68 kilometers left
of Four Lane, but when I was a kid, at
(01:25):
eight years old, when my parents got
divorced and they started four laning for
the first time in four years, we had 200
kilometers.
I was eight.
I'm turning 42 this year.
You can't tell me it takes that long to
four lane, 200 kilometers of roadway.
So today Autolux is going to take a look at
the reason why the province of Ontario is
not unlike any other province in the entire
(01:45):
country of Canada and why Canada doesn't
have an interstate system.
Welcome back to the Autolux podcast.
I am your host, as always, the doctor to
the automotive industry, mr Everett Jay,
coming to you from our host website at
autoluxnet.
If you haven't been there, stop by check it
out.
Read some of the reviews.
Check out some of the ratings.
Doctor to the automotive industry, mr
everett j, coming to you from our host
(02:06):
website at autoluxnet.
If you haven't been there, stop by check it
out.
Read some of the reviews.
Check out some of the ratings.
Go to the corporate links website page.
Check our our end of the year reviews, all
from autoluxnet, and, while they're, check
out the help pages and see some of the
other stuff that we have on the website.
The outlook podcast is brought to you by
ecom entertainment group, distributed by
podbeamcom.
The autolux podcast is hosted by the one
and only mr everett jay and distributed by
(02:27):
podbeam.
Going across every major streaming site,
from spotify to itunes, you can find the
autolux podcast at and, if you'd like to
get in touch with us, send us an email over
email at autoluxnet.
So, like I said in the beginning, a
canadian interstate system.
Well, if you're like myself and you've
traveled across the great white north, I've
literally been from sea to sea on our
highway system.
I have traversed, except for a portion of
(02:49):
the Trans-Canada and Newfoundland, because
it's the only province I've been to.
I have traversed every other portion of the
Trans-Canada Highway and while traversing
it, I've come to realize that there are
only two provinces in this entire country
that you have to travel on a two-lane
highway.
Why?
Because every other province except for
British Columbia and Ontario believe that
(03:10):
the Trans Canada is a vital piece of
infrastructure that needs to have the most
amount of money into it because, like I
said, it's a vital resource.
It's where all of our trade travel on the
Trans Canada traverses, from coast to coast
to coast, essentially because it actually
goes all the way up to Inovik.
Now we're not saying you need to four lane
and going all the way up to Inovik where
(03:31):
you know essentially there's barely
anything, because when you leave Dawson
City you're over six hours of nothing,
literal nothing.
One gas station in the middle and that's it.
But going from Victoria all the way out to
Nova Scotia, traveling along the
Trans-Canada Highway, nearly every major
portion of it is four-laned.
There's a section that goes out to the
(03:51):
Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia.
That's not complete but Nova Scotia is
working on it.
The reason why that section hasn't been
done is because it's low volume.
They have a four-lane limited access
highway going all the way to Halifax, so
you can go from Halifax all the way up and
down through the Southern Ontario Belt and
out to Windsor.
You can access every major area of the
(04:12):
United States.
On the East Coast of Canada they've
determined that every vital link road needs
to be expanded, whether it be limited
access four lane or limited access two lane.
It needs to be expanded For an area that
barely has any growth.
Like I said, when my parents divorced in
1991, the country of Canada had less than
30 million people.
We're literally sitting at about 24 million
(04:34):
people in this country.
We have literally just crossed the 40
million mark last year in 2024.
So we've added a ton of those people, but
where did they go?
Lower mainland, bc, st Lawrence, cua in
Quebec and southern Ontario, which is
essentially anywhere south of the Muskokas.
Besides that, a travel way between Calgary
and Edmonton are the only other areas in
(04:54):
the country.
That is substantially growth.
So why is it?
When I'm on the east coast of Canada, I'm
traveling on a four-lane highway?
Literally, trans-canada Highway through New
Brunswick is 100% four-lane highway.
Literally, trans-canada Highway through New
Brunswick is 100% four-lane.
I traveled out there back in the 90s after
my parents were divorced.
I think it was about 93, 94.
When we went out there they were building
their limited access freeway-style
(05:15):
four-lane highway in an area that had
cities smaller than my home city.
They were building these.
They were building them in Nova Scotia,
they were adding them to Newfoundland, all
from areas that don't have the same amount
of population as what runs between North
Bay and Sault Ste Marie, ontario.
Sault Ste Marie is nearly 80,000 people.
The city of Greater Sudbury is 168,000
(05:36):
people and the city of North Bay is
creeping closer to 60,000.
Doesn't seem like a lot, considering the
fact between Sudbury and the Sioux is three
hours and Sudbury and North Bay is an hour
and a half.
But when you're on the east coast of Canada,
from Edmonston all the way down to
Fredericton is nearly two hours, from
Fredericton to Moncton is nearly two hours
and then from Moncton to Halifax is nearly
three hours.
But they have a limited access highway and
(06:05):
at the time in the 90s, all three of those
cities, excluding Halifax, were all smaller
than both Sudbury and Sault Ste Marie.
But they built it.
They developed an interstate system because
they knew the trade routes would help
benefit their economy.
They knew people are more likely to travel
into areas with freeway access highways, if
not that, at least four-lane broken road
highways.
If you've traveled from Toronto all the way
up to North Bay, ontario, it's a four-lane
broken, not freeway style everywhere, but
(06:27):
broken highway.
That's why Highway 11 is not 411.
And the province of Ontario is one of the
few areas in the entire country that
actually has its own dedicated
interstate-style number codes for highways.
Anything marked 400 is limited access
throughways.
So Highway 11 going up to North Bay can't
be considered the 411 because it's not
limited access the whole way.
(06:47):
400 going all the way up to Parry Sound is
the 400.
Once complete, all the way to Sudbury, it
would be the 400 going from Toronto to
Sudbury.
Unfortunately, that's a 60-year-long
endeavor, considering the fact that Highway
69 wasn't even completed until the
mid-1960s and its four-laning started in
1978.
Nothing has been done.
The amount of traffic on Highway 17 between
(07:10):
North Bay and Sault Ste Marie far exceeds
the traffic that you'll find running up the
coast of New Brunswick.
And yet last summer, when I was traveling,
I decided to take the back route, go up
towards Bathurst, and it's a two-lane,
limited-access highway, but it was still
limited access.
It was's a two-lane, limited-access highway,
but it was still limited access.
It was still a free-flowing highway,
something we don't have in the North.
Now the question is why doesn't Canada have
(07:32):
an interstate system?
Well, like I said, in 1991, there was only
about eight and a half million people in
the province of Ontario, which made up a
third of the population of the entire
country of Canada.
Even to this day, ontario makes up a third
of the population of the entire province of
Canada, with over 10 million people in our
province with a population of over 40
million people, and out of that, over 65%
(07:53):
of the population runs between Pickering,
ontario, up as far north as Vaughan, over
as far west as Milton and curling all the
way around to Stoney Creek.
It's called the Greater Toronto-Hamilton
Corridor.
It's one megacity.
There's nearly over 7 million people within
it.
If you didn't know this, when you travel
through Toronto, the QEW is actually the
(08:14):
first limited access highway ever created
in all of North America.
The Americans basically gave birth to the
limited access highway.
They showcased it at the New York World's
Fair, but Canada was the first to implement
it.
The QEW was built for the Queen's arrival
in the 1950s, long before the interstate
system was put into play.
(08:36):
But why did the Americans build their
interstate system?
Yeah, they had the population to base it on,
but not everywhere had that population.
I've traveled all across the states.
I've been to 33 different states.
I've only been to one where I haven't been
to anything around it because I flew to it
for my brother's wedding.
But every other state I've driven through.
I've been through Montana.
I've been all the way to the tip of Florida.
I've been to every state on the eastern
(08:56):
seaboard, except for South Carolina.
I don't know why.
I guess because I-95 doesn't go straight
through it to the south or north, one of
the two and while traveling through a lot
of these, like montana, the state of
montana has a smaller population than all
of northern ontario but has an interstate
technically two interstates running right
through it.
They have their east west and they have a
north south line.
North south line is only made to connect to
(09:18):
the canadian border and then east west is
made so you can get across the country.
They built this system because every state
had to have an easily accessible highway
that was safe and flowed from state to
state.
Canada we have never enacted that.
Every province has its own set rules and
that's a big problem when you consider the
fact that over the next 30 years Canada is
(09:39):
going to be adding over another 20 million
people.
So we're going to finally hit 60 million
people within the next 30 years.
We're going to finally hit 60 million
people within the next 30 years.
We're going to need better highway systems.
We need better infrastructure to move
people along.
The province of BC has now outlined that
Highway 1, or the Trans-Canada Highway
along its southern corridor, from the
Alberta border all the way to Vancouver now
(10:00):
needs to be expanded.
They're not going full limited access In
some areas they're just doing four-lane
broken roads.
But they say it's because it's too costly
to move people out to build these highways.
It's like well, let me see, you've had 60
years to develop this system but have never
done it.
I get it.
You go traversing through these mass
mountains.
(10:20):
It's expensive to do it, but there are
areas along there that it wouldn't be so
expensive.
Let's take into consideration Sweden,
norway or Finland, who have developed
massive highways even through their
northern corridors.
And yet BC, which at one point was one of
the fastest growing provinces in the entire
country.
During the 90s, bc was our California.
If you live in Vancouver, you hardly ever
(10:41):
see snow, unless you go to the mountains.
It was a more temperate climate compared to
the rest of the country, so a lot of people
went, but they didn't didn't build a
limited access highway because they said it
would take away from their natural aspect
of their environment.
Well, go live in Kelowna, bc right now.
Go, actually just go onto Google Maps and
go over top of Kelowna and see how a city,
(11:03):
one of the fastest growing in the country,
what type of infrastructure it has for the
movement of people and goods.
See, people always see interstates and big
highways or freeways in cities as a major
investment.
That's just going to make it so that people
want to urbanize everything.
Well, there is some part of that, because
as they built them in California during the
1950s, they urbanized all the valley areas
(11:25):
and more people moved out and out and out
and out and eventually you got this mass
urbanization where tons of people had to
just utilize their vehicle and their
vehicle only.
We get that.
That's the reason why the city of Vancouver
has been so reluctant to build brand new
limited access throughways.
They now have a dedicated transport route
going north-south, because essentially
going north-south, coming off the
(11:46):
Trans-Canada Highway and having to go to
the States, you have to travel along
surface roads to make crossovers, to get
down there.
There is no freeway access unless you
actually take the transport route, which
isn't even fully limited access.
But what happens when you don't have
systems like this?
I see it all the time.
Just this past week, being wintertime, we
had a snowstorm.
It was very close to the city of North Bay
(12:07):
and Highway 17, running between Subway and
North Bay.
There are sections of it that, if it gets
shut down, you got to go way out of your
way.
I'll put this into my perspective.
Where my parents live, just west of Sudbury,
about an hour west, there's a certain
section where the highway has no way to go
around it.
So for a section roughly about 20
kilometers crossing the Spanish River, if
(12:28):
there is an accident there or if the bridge
collapsed, the only way around it is to go
all the way to Bruce Mines, take a highway
all the way up to Highway 101, cross over
towards Timmins and come all the way back
down.
An hour long drive into the city of Sudbury
in the middle of wintertime will take you
nearly eight and a half hours.
If you had to drive all the way down to
Highway 69 to go all the way around it, you
(12:53):
added two and a half hours to your trip.
I had a boss that was coming to work once.
They were coming from Thunder Bay all the
way to Sudbury, to our office, and the
Highway 17 was shut down and they had to go
take Highway 11.
It added ten and a half hours to their trip
because all we have are two-lane highways.
When there's an accident with a death on it,
the highway gets shut down between six to
(13:15):
eight hours.
That means goods crossing the country are
literally at a standstill for an entire
shift.
Okay, that's into perspective for you An
entire shift.
Sault Ste Marie is one of two steel cities
in the entire country, the other one being
Hamilton.
Hamilton has limited access freeways
everywhere around it.
It's a greater Toronto-Hamilton area.
(13:35):
It is the area that over 90% of the
infrastructure money for the province of
Ontario are injected into.
Yes, the rest of the province fights over
the remaining 10%.
Trust me, the government of Ontario refuses
to finish the highway, the 68 kilometers
coming to Sudbury, because the price tag is
nearly $3 billion.
Now, 20 years ago they said it was too
expensive when it was 120 kilometers at
(13:57):
$1.1 billion.
Back then.
That same year, they said $1.1 billion is
too expensive to finish the highway.
They wrote a check to put one kilometer of
collector lanes in Mississauga for $115
million.
They didn't even have an assessment done
and they wrote the check for it the year.
The Doug Ford government denied 69 being
finished.
He's saying nearly $3 billion is too
(14:18):
expensive to finish that for the traffic
volumes that we have.
Meanwhile they dumped over $6 billion into
the city of Toronto to expand its subway
lines, but they can't finish our highway.
They've been working on for 60 years, 60
years.
Yes, this entire country has an
infrastructure problem.
Recently, with Trump getting back into
power in the United States and him putting
(14:39):
out the idea of Canada becoming the 51st
state.
I always love to hear this and I laugh
about it.
I said you know, the funniest thing is if I
actually became the 51st state, you know
what would happen to the province of
Ontario in BC?
I'm'm like they'd be fucked literally.
I'm putting that right out there.
They would be 100% fucked because if canada
was a 51st state, the interstate law in the
(15:00):
united states would come into effect.
Now the prairies, their four-lane highways,
aren't fully limited access, not everywhere,
so for them it's just building bridges,
that's all it is.
That's not too bad, say miss, same as
Saskatchewan, manitoba, quebec, no problem.
East Coast already done.
Ontario Highway 17 is the Trans-Canada in
Ontario and the four-lane of 417 ends right
(15:23):
outside of Ottawa, just outside of Arnprior.
Ontario is where the 417, the four-lane
ends.
The next time you ever hit a four lane
highway is five hours later when you're
going through Subway.
You travel along a 20 kilometer section
built in 1981, when the government promised
a four lane highway, 17 for us, but didn't
(15:43):
they built 20 kilometers limited access.
Actually, it's not even fully limited
access, because the very last connection,
where the old highway, which is now 55,
regional Road 55, comes out, it's a
crossover onto the highway and, trust me,
there's at least three to six people killed
every year at that intersection, every year,
and they still refuse to do anything about
it.
After that, you hit another 40 kilometers
(16:04):
outside of Sault Ste Marie, ontario.
After you leave Sault Ste Marie, the next
time you hit a four-lane Acre crossing
section of highway.
It's just outside of Nipigon, ontario.
Nearly six and a half hours later, just
before that section is slowly being built
up.
Between there and Thunder Bay.
About two hours, you cross over a multitude
(16:24):
of different four-lane sections.
After Thunder Bay, you don't hit another
four-lane section of highway until you
cross over to the Manitoba border.
Another four-lane section of highway until
you cross over to the Manitoba border.
Right now they're starting to expand
Highway 17 to four-lane accurate crossings
from the Manitoba border all the way to
Kenora only because the province of
Manitoba fought with the province of
Ontario, stating the fact that most people
(16:44):
from the city of Winnipeg have camps in
Ontario by Kenora, not on Lake Winnipeg.
So they pushed us to expand our highway.
Outside of my door on 17, when I ride on,
it is over 1,500 kilometers from where I am
to the Manitoba border and I'm over five
hours away from Ottawa.
So from here it's in like 500 kilometers,
(17:04):
any of the 2,000 kilometers across the
province of Ontario.
The Trans-Canada Highway out of that 2,000
kilometers, the Trans-Canada Highway out of
that 2,000 kilometers, 120 kilometers of
that is four lanes.
So 1,880 kilometers across the province of
Ontario is two-lane standardized highway
that was built between the 50s and 60s.
(17:26):
You only have passing lanes.
This is the Trans-Canada Highway.
It traverses our entire country and it's
two-lane.
Pretty funny, huh.
Second largest country in the world, third
country in the world for oil, one of the
top countries in the world for mineral
reserves, one of the top countries in the
world for the amount of fresh water, and
(17:47):
yet if you want to cross this country, when
you get to the city of Sault Ste Marie,
it's actually safer for you to cross the
border into northern Michigan, cross the
top of the peninsula all the way across to
Wisconsin and Minnesota and come up by
Winnipeg, even though the third best drive
in the entire country for scenery is from
Batchewana Bay to Nipigon, ontario Highway
(18:08):
17.
I get it, if you four-laned it you would
lose that luster.
But I'm not saying full lane it.
I'm saying you need to create a two-lane,
dedicated highway.
Transports need a direct route and nothing
that's too close to the lake.
If they were pushed further back into the
mountains on a standard two-lane
transport-rated highway, essentially a 1
plus 2 highway like they have in northern
(18:31):
parts of Norway, sweden and Finland, you
can make it safer.
But that would be building proper
infrastructure, something that both the
province of Ontario and British Columbia
will never do.
Now think about it.
How much would it cost to four-lane 1,880
kilometers, in today's value, across the
complete Canadian Shield?
The easiest parts of that entire section to
(18:53):
four-lane are between North Bay, ontario,
and Sault Ste Marie.
There's a small section east of the city of
Sudbury where you travel through hard rock,
but the rest of it is lower level rock and
farmland which you can easily and cheaply
Four Lane.
Canada is stuck in a major infrastructure
deficit.
We've added more people in the past decade
to our country than we ever have in our
(19:15):
entire history.
Unfortunately, in this country we push
everybody towards five major cities
Montreal, toronto, ottawa, calgary or
Vancouver.
There's a lot more to Canada than just
these five cities.
And out of all those cities, only two of
them have ever built proper infrastructure
Calgary and Montreal.
Montreal is now realizing that it needs to
(19:35):
build better infrastructure within its
system.
It now needs to build HOV lanes and light
rail transit, because all of its main
limited access highways were built at a
time that it was then the car was king, but
public transit wasn't.
Now they're learning.
Public transit needs to be increased.
The city of Calgary has already been on top
of that.
Now they just need to expand their highway.
You see, the United States realized during
(19:57):
the 1950s, before they developed their
interstate system, that more and more goods
were being shipped by truck.
Trucks were faster than shipping by train.
Shipping by train is cheaper across longer
distances.
Trust me, the best thing you can do if you
want to ship across the country of Canada
is, when you get stuff to either North Bay
or Sudbury, put it on a train and ship it
all the way to Manitoba.
(20:18):
Once it hits Manitoba, put it on a truck
and ship it somewhere else.
You have to remember along the Highway 17
corridor or the Trans-Canada Highway in
Northern Ontario.
Along that portion it's roughly about
670,000 people.
In four major cities, there's over 100,000
other people that ride along Highway 11.
But consider the fact that when you get to
those major cities, all you need to do is
just have a few trucks go out Hell, even
(20:39):
from the city of Sudbury.
An intermodal facility there, the Thunder
Bay, would take so much more off of our
highways, but we still don't utilize rail
systems in this country to its proper
benefit.
The country of Canada relies so much on
truck transportation and yet the
infrastructure that the trucks have to
travel across in this country in some areas
(20:59):
is from the 1960s at the newest point.
When you hit the prairies, it's four-lane,
act-grade crossing highways from there
pretty much to just outside of Calgary.
Most major cities have limited access,
freeway style but besides that, most of
them are act-grade.
But there are four-lane highways.
Sure, you have to slow down while you're in
small towns for traffic lights, because
(21:20):
some of them don't have bridges.
And you do have to slow down, but besides
that, when you have a snowstorm you're not
directly head on with somebody else.
And yet also when they're out in the
prairies there's a lot more roads.
So when one road gets closed, it's like
southern Ontario when one road gets closed,
there's another road to take it.
You lose 15 minutes or travel, that's it.
But in select areas of this country, when
the roads are shut down from bad weather,
(21:42):
they're shut down and trade does not move.
The city of suburbia the government has
actually put it out we're the third highest
gdp out of every major city in the entire
province, with only the city of toronto and
the city of Guelph per capita GDP is higher
than us.
We outrank Ottawa and Hamilton for GDP per
capita.
(22:03):
Like per person in the city of Sudbury is
worth more Our full GDP, gross domestic
product for the entire country than cities
with four times more population than we
have.
It's kind of funny.
And yet our GDP rides on the fact that when
we ship stuff out, it may not get there on
time.
The funny thing is I know this firsthand
(22:24):
from jobs.
I've worked throughout my life trying to
plan around getting stuff delivered.
I don't know how many times I've had
contractors waiting on site for their
product get delivered and I have to call
them and tell them that the truck is
literally stuck on the highway.
You'll get your material tomorrow.
I would never have to deal with a situation
like that if I lived in a major city and
had proper infrastructure.
(22:45):
But Canada doesn't have a National Highway
Act.
The federal government has never enacted a
Federal Highway Act.
The last prime minister that even
considered it was Jean Chrétien in the 90s.
He wanted to create a National Highway Act
making the Trans-Canada Highway a national
important highway.
That had to be four-lane, limited access
(23:06):
everywhere in the country.
He was outranked by everyone else.
Everyone else in the government said no,
like Northern Ontario, certain areas in BC
and even out in the prairies or the East
Coast.
There's not enough population to warrant
this.
It's going to cost us so much money and
it's not going to benefit us.
Crap Bullshit.
Funny thing is is I wrote an article in
high school over 20 years ago that talked
(23:28):
about the benefits of limited access
interstate systems in the United States and
how the fact that the interstate system
helped build so many big cities.
The interstates literally built the
economies of so many small towns into small
cities.
Think about it Without an interstate going
to Mount Rushmore, do you think there'd be
any major cities close by?
(23:49):
No, without an interstate running through
Montana, do you think anybody in the United
States would know where Butte Montana is?
Besides the people that have watched Beavis
and Butthead and kind of laugh at.
You know Butthead says butt, peck and wipe
right, I've actually found them all on a
map.
No, you wouldn't.
You need the proper infrastructure for it,
and that's the problem.
Our country doesn't.
(24:09):
And if we're going to be adding another 20
million people to this country even though
where I live in Northern Ontario is lucky
if it's going to get 100,000 people of that
20 million you still need to develop the
proper infrastructure for an entire country
to operate as a singular unit.
Relying on the American interstate system
to move products between Southern Ontario
(24:31):
and the Western provinces just means that
Americans are going to stick it to you when
it comes to free trade agreements.
Americans know that we need their highway
systems to move stuff across this continent.
Why?
Because our country is too fucking cheap to
build a proper infrastructure that we
desperately need to move products along.
Our GDP could increase with a national
(24:52):
interstate system or, in this case, a
national interprovincial system.
Kretchen was on to something and,
unfortunately, unless the replacement for
Justin Trudeau in our country comes to an
agreement and actually states that we need
to get this put into place, it'll never
happen.
As you've already noticed, all provinces
except for two understand the importance of
our national highway.
(25:12):
So, in all reality, will it ever get done?
Will I ever be able to drive on a four-lane
highway from my home city four hours south?
My grandfather always told me he would
never see it.
My father didn't believe that he wouldn't,
but my father actually believes now he will
never see it, considering the fact that
he's turning 70 soon this year, and I
believe him.
I don't think he'll ever see that highway
finished.
(25:33):
I'll be lucky if my son becomes the first
generation in our family to drive on a
four-lane highway from our city to the
south.
Why?
Because of the highway standards set in
place by the province of Ontario.
They're set at a 95% capacity rating based
off of traffic volumes in the greater
Toronto area.
That is why, where every other province
(25:53):
bases it on overall traveling, which means
if a highway far exceeds 60% capacity over
a 24-hour period, at any point it's
expanded.
In Ontario it has to be 95% capacity for 24
hours to prove it needs to be expanded.
So, in all reality, our federal government
(26:13):
really needs to step in, put their foot
down and say say, we need a national
highway pact and because of that, canada
will never have its own interstate system.
So if you like this podcast.
Please like, share or comment about it on
any major social feeds or streaming sites
that you found the Autolux podcast on.
Go to the website.
Read some of the reviews, send us a comment.
Send us an email at email at autoluxnet and
(26:34):
tell us what you think about Canada
developing its own interprovincial highway
system.
Do we need a highway pact?
We sure we have areas that don't require a
big four lane highway, but when over 50% of
your gross product travels by transport
truck and moves across the entire country,
we can increase the amount of jobs in
transportation alone by creating a national
(26:57):
highway pact.
Tell me what you think, send in the
comments, send us an email and, like I said,
go to the website, read some of the reviews,
check out some of the ratings.
Go to corporate links website page, big or
small.
We have them all car copies from around the
globe on the autoluxnet website.
The autolux podcast is brought to you by
ecom entertainment group or distributed at
podbeamcom.
If you like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email at autoluxnet.
(27:18):
So from myself, everett Jay, the crew over
at Ecom Entertainment Group, myself, the
owner, the operator and the host of the
Autolux podcast and the autoluxnet website.
Strap yourself in for this one fun wild
ride that the lack of an interstate will
take us on.
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