Enhancing the Resilience of Manitoba’s Winter Roads System

Manitoba's winter road system, essential for remote communities, faced reduced operational windows in the late 1990s and early 2000s due to warmer winters, resulting in additional costs of $15 million to $18 million for air transport of goods. To address this, the province implemented a resilience strategy involving the relocation of roads away from water bodies and the construction of overland routes. The success of these adaptations was attributed to policy coherence with northern development strategies, the use of scientific temperature projections, stakeholder engagement, the inherent flexibility of annually rebuilt roads, and a risk-management framing of the issue.

• Warmer-than-average winter temperatures and fluctuating water and ice levels in the late 1990s and early 2000s shortened the winter road season, causing an estimated $15 million to $18 million in additional costs to fly essential goods into remote communities.
• Manitoba improved the resilience of its winter road network by utilizing scientific research and risk management to relocate roads away from water bodies and build new overland routes.
• The initiative's success was driven by five key factors: alignment with northern development policy, leveraging existing research for temperature projections, engagement between scientists and decision-makers, the adaptable nature of roads that are rebuilt annually, and framing the problem as a risk-management issue.

APA

Taylor,, J.-E. P. (2014). Enhancing the Resilience of Manitoba’s Winter Roads System. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/enhancing-resilience-manitobas-winter-roads-system

Chicago

Taylor,, Jo-Ellen Parry,Susan. Enhancing the Resilience of Manitoba’s Winter Roads System. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2014. https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/enhancing-resilience-manitobas-winter-roads-system.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Taylor, |first1=Jo-Ellen Parry,Susan |title=Enhancing the Resilience of Manitoba’s Winter Roads System |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=7 May 2014 |url=https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/enhancing-resilience-manitobas-winter-roads-system |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{taylor2014enhancing, author = {Taylor,, Jo-Ellen Parry,Susan}, title = {{Enhancing the Resilience of Manitoba’s Winter Roads System}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2014}, month = may, url = {https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/enhancing-resilience-manitobas-winter-roads-system}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }