It’s too early to say if the federal government will help businesses under stress from the devastating wildfire season in B.C., Transportation Minister Rob Fleming said Tuesday.
Highway 4, which connects Port Alberni, Tofino and Ucluelet to the rest of Vancouver Island, is closed due to dangerous conditions created by the Cameron Bluffs wildfire. The highway is expected to reopen to single lane, alternating traffic on the weekend of June 24 and will tentatively be fully reopened in mid-July.
The closure has created many challenges for businesses and tourists, said Fleming.
“Our focus so far has been on fire suppression and safety and on coming up with a plan to open the highway safely as soon as we can,” said Fleming. “That’s where all our efforts are. It’s also been to work closely with the business community to see what kind of challenges they are experiencing, to help them with a shortage of goods and to update them with all the information we have on the situation as it unfolds.”
A 90-kilometre gravel detour route from Lake Cowichan to Port Alberni is getting food, fuel and vital supplies to the people who need them, he said. Four commercial vehicle convoys carrying essential good and services are making the trip each day.
The ministry has eight changeable message signs to guide drivers through the detour. It has installed 12 porta-potties. Four water trucks have been deployed to help control dust on the gravel road. Two graders are smoothing the road surface and three pilot vehicles are travelling with the commercial convoys to warn oncoming traffic at the single-lane bridges.
“We are seeing upwards of a dozen vehicles in the commercial vehicle convoy so we know goods and services are getting to and from the Alberni Valley,” Janelle Staite, deputy director for the Ministry of Transportation’s south coast region, said during the ministry briefing.
A fuel supplier is expected to lead a five-vehicle convoy from Lake Cowichan to Port Alberni Wednesday morning, she said.
During the summer months, 15,000 vehicles travel daily between Port Alberni and Parksville on Highway 4. Between 500 and 1,000 are using the detour route daily, said Staite.
The tourism and business communities and locals have been working with the ministry on how use to the detour route and Highway 4 once it’s reopened, said Fleming.
After the highway is reopened, in the coming weeks and months, the ministry will consider creating secondary routes, he said.
“There have been some improvements on the current alternate route which is why it has been selected. It is the most desirable, drivable route that is open. We have put cautions on there for essential travel because we don’t want it overly congested. We also want to make people fully prepared for the conditions there … it’s not a paved highway.”
The business community has reached out with suggestions, which the ministry will work to implement, said Fleming.
“We’re looking forward to further discussions on a daily basis to see how we can make sure supplies are getting through and that goods can get to market destinations out of the Alberni Valley.”
The province contacted to the federal government to see if it can assist businesses. Fleming has also contacted regional and national airlines to consider discounting flights into the affected communities.
“We’ll continue to do our best to work closely with business and the tourism industry to make sure that the marketing around B.C. as a desirable place is strong,” said Fleming. The province’s reputation for mobilizing resources and keeping people safe demonstrates its commitment to a strong robust tourist economy, he said.
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