With the Dunn Lake Road paving project complete after many long years of planning and waiting, the members of the Simpcw First Nation community are relieved to have a newly paved, even and safer route in and out of Chu Chua to Barriere.
Simpcw Kúkpi7 George Lampreau addressed the group gathered to celebrate the road project on Monday, Nov. 20 in the gymnasium at the band offices, saying, “This has been a long time coming and maybe now we won’t have to replace so many tires and brakes as we’ve had to in the past! We are really thankful to have this project done and know that our people will feel much safer driving this road.”
The guests included the Associate Deputy Minister of MOTI, Kevin Richter who also spoke briefly saying, “We are honoured to be here to see the completion of this project. Today is a remarkable day and it’s decades in the coming. It’s an exceptional collaboration between Simpcw and the ministry to pave Dunn Lake Road. From what I have heard from elders and other community members and the hardships they have had prior to this work was pretty incredible.I’m so thankful to be invited here today to celebrate with the community.”
When asked when the North Thompson might expect the other half of Dunn Lake Road to be paved from the Clearwater side, the deputy minister replied, “Right now we recognize that section is also important and we’ve put it on our list. As we balance our budgets we certainly want to build off this incredible place that we’ve gotten to with the Simpcw community and program that project in the future.”
Lampreau shared his feelings on the journey leading up to this project and it’s completion saying, “It’s great to see the collective efforts from past Chiefs and councils to present Chief and council along with ministry staff on this journey that has taken awhile to achieve. Through hard work and perseverance, that’s something we do at Simpcw. Our staff rolls up their sleeves along with our leadership and we work together taking advantage of the partnerships and opportunities in order to make these things happen. Now we have a road that is safer, quicker response for the ambulance to get here with a better road. It’s a very proud moment to see this project finalized that has taken many terms of leadership to see this happen today.”
