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A promised 400-kilometre highway bridging Quebec’s isolated Lower North Shore region to the rest of the province is no longer in the works, according to Quebec Transport Minister Benoit Charette.
Questioned at the end of May in a budgetary parliamentary committee, he said the extension of Highway 138 will look different — and not be 400 kilometres.
“If we were to do only, strictly road transit, it would cost us several billion dollars,” he said. “Going solely with a road is not the best solution.”
He said currently, it takes about 54 hours to complete the stretch by a mixture of planes, vehicles, and sometimes ferry, but once an “intervention plan” is implemented, the government hopes to reduce that commute to about 16 hours.
“It’s a vast territory,” said Charette.
In a post on X Thursday afternoon, Charette said the extension of Highway 138 is still a priority project.
“The government has revised the Route 138 extension project into an action plan and is currently working on prioritizing the actions that will be carried out,” he wrote.
A map of how the planned extension project of Highway 138 on Quebec’s Lower North Shore was intended to look. (Ministère des Transports du Québec)
Highway 138 currently extends all the way up Quebec’s Lower North Shore but abruptly ends in Kegaska before picking up again in Old-Fort Bay — just 75 kilometres southwest of the border between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.
About a dozen towns between Old Fort Bay and Kegaska have long advocated for the progression of the road — which would connect them to the rest of the province.
In 2021, then minister of transport François Bonnardel revealed the timeline for the project. The first two small sections were supposed to be completed by 2025 with a $695.5 million investment.
But the roadwork has been subject to a number of delays.
It’s been a discussion for the better part of 40 years, says Daren Jones, prefect of the MRC du Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent
“These setbacks have been done before,” he said. “They don’t see this as important.”
Jones takes issue with the lack of communication from the province. He found out about the 400-kilometre project being scrapped through news reports.
“I am an elected official on the Lower North Shore, elected by the people. And I have to find out about this through that,” he said.
He notes a ferry service is also not the go-to solution now for the whole region — considering likely delays due to weather and wind.
In a news release Thursday evening, the MRC du Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent says they were “blindsided” by this announcement and called for an urgent meeting with the Quebec government to agree on an action plan to improve transportation for residents.
“MRC elected officials wish to remind the provincial government that the desire to see Route 138 extended to Blanc-Sablon stems from dissatisfaction with the quality of the transportation alternatives already available,” read the news release.
“Our population deserves the same rights and opportunities as all Canadians, and improving the quality of transportation is not a luxury for the Lower North Shore.”
Kateri Champagne Jourdain, the MNA representing the region, declined CBC’s interview request.