Enhancing the Resilience of Manitoba’s Winter Roads System

This case study examines how the province of Manitoba improved the resilience of its winter road network to mitigate the economic and social impacts of warmer winter temperatures and fluctuating ice levels.

• In the late 1990s and early 2000s, warmer-than-average winter temperatures and fluctuating ice and water levels reduced the operational window of Manitoba's winter road system, resulting in additional costs of approximately $15 million to $18 million due to the need to fly essential goods into remote communities.
• To increase system resiliency against climate change, Manitoba utilized scientific research, risk management planning, and cost assessments to upgrade its network, which included constructing new overland routes and relocating roads away from water bodies.
• The success of the winter road resilience initiative was driven by five key factors: policy coherence with northern development strategies, leveraging existing research for temperature projections, stakeholder engagement between scientists and decision-makers, the inherent flexibility of a system rebuilt annually, and framing the project 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} }