'The ice is not freezing as it should': supply roads to Canada's Indigenous communities under threat from climate crisis

[cbabe]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/01/canada-ice-roads-first-nations-indigenous-communities-climate-crisis

‘The ice is not freezing as it should’: supply roads to Canada’s Indigenous communities under threat from climate crisis

Northern Ontario is seeing a ‘shorter window’ for ice roads that deliver vital supplies to remote First Nations

By Hilary Beaumont in Eabametoong First Nation
Tue 1 Apr 2025 06.18 EDT

At first there was no answer on the satellite phone. But on the third call, Donald Meeseetawageesic heard his sister’s voice. “We need somebody to come and tow us out,” he told her.

It was a warmer-than-normal night in early March and Meeseetawageesic, the elected band councillor for Eabametoong First Nation, was stranded in a 4x4 truck on the dark winter road leading to his community. The tyres were stuck in the deep snow and the temperature outside was below freezing. Help was about 60km (37 miles) away.

Made entirely of snow and ice, the winter road forms a vital route connecting Eabametoong in northern Ontario to cities farther south. It has 24 snow bridges spanning creeks, and a daunting 5.5-km crossing over a frozen lake. But warmer winters are making the route unpredictable: the snow bridges are weakening and the lake ice is thinning.

In past decades, temperatures have been cold enough in March for a firm road surface. But this year, a mild winter has softened the snowy road, and as Meeseetawageesic and his brother drove along the road, their truck got stuck in the snow.

More than 50 Indigenous communities – with a total population of 56,000 people – depend on about 6,000km of winter roads.

… more …