SASKATOON -- The lone road into Fond Du Lac is closed due to unsafe conditions.
Fond Du Lac is located 800 kilometres north of Saskatoon, and is accessible only by boat, plane or snowmobile when the road is closed.
"A few vehicles almost went through the ice, luckily they got out" band councillor Jake Mercredi said in a phone interview.
He said the road isn’t usually open until sometime in January or February, but because Fond Du Lac is so isolated, many risk their lives to travel across the ice.
Mercredi said another councillor took it upon himself to shut the road down, blocking it with his own vehicle so no one would try an un-safe crossing. Many are travelling with extra weight when coming back to town.
"The high cost of living in Fond Du Lac is triple for food and gas prices" Mercredi said "People come and try and bring a lot of things by vehicle and they travel on the ice and they’re risking their lives on it because it’s not open."
Mercredi saod the past two years have been especially bad, with warmer weather providing more unreliable ice than in previous years.
The next step according to Mercredi is to lobby to the government to get a year-round access road put in place, but he says that will take a lot of time and work.
