The Reeve of the Rural Municipality of St. François Xavier wants the province to get their main transportation hub fixed, pronto.

Delmer Nott was recently acclaimed to be the Reeve in the community and he says their number one focus in 2023, will be making Highway 26 safer.

"This is an agricultural community. The Highway 26 is 65 kilometres from Trans-Canada (Highway #1) to Trans-Canada (Highway #1), down along the Assiniboine," says Nott. "That's the only way our farmers can move product to market, or in reverse, having markets move product to farmers and the community. The highway, at this present time, is not in a condition that I would say, would be safe for travel any longer."

A road with lots of potholes and chunks missing.

Nott notes the highway was designed many years ago to meet the needs of the community, but times have changed, and the road has not. He says traffic has increased dramatically over the past few decades which has been destroying the highway. 

"Last winter, during the major storms, we had a big problem out in this area with the semi-trucks trying to bypass the Trans-Canada Highway and it really caused a lot of issues here," says Nott. "There was a lot of trucks. It was very dangerous. When you have a semi on this road, you cannot pass with a truck or a vehicle, because one is is going to be skirting the pavement edge which is a six-inch drop-off in most places."

He says there are hollows in the road that will move your vehicle, and it's not unusual to see vehicles straddling both lanes to try and avoid certain parts of the road. He adds the uneven patching forces people to the centre of the highway, making passing improbable.

Highway conditions are not great -- lots of snow and ice.