The opening of the entire Route blanche this winter will please many residents and innkeepers of the Lower North Shore. It not only allows traffic between the different coastal villages, but it also reopens the way for the return of tourists, following two winters without them.
Last year, the White Route was not fully open for a single day due to the excessively mild temperatures. Only sections were open between certain villages.
This year, the White Route is completely open to snowmobile traffic since February 15.
Several innkeepers on the Lower North Shore are delighted to see dozens of snowmobilers arriving at their doors every week.
[Durant les deux dernières années] apart from during the summer when the road is open for everyone, there were no touristssays Dolorès Bellefleur, who owns the Innuberge Inn in Unamen Shipu.
© Nicolas Lachapelle/Radio-Canada
The owner of the Innuberge, Dolores Bellefleur
The community of Unamen Shipu, also known as La Romaine, is made up of more than 1,000 members.
After two years of financial instability, Ms. Bellefleur says she is delighted to finally be able to welcome travelers to her community.
In Tête-à-la-Baleine, the owner of the Auberge de l’Archipel, Martin Marcoux, is as satisfied as Mrs. Bellefleur. He is also delighted to receive new snowmobilers every day in his establishment for the past two weeks.
Marcoux says the specter of the COVID-19 virus isn’t as scary as it used to be, even with the daily arrival of visitors to the village.
People got used to the idea that you have to live with it [le virus], that we can’t stop living for COVID-19. In my opinion, their fear is behind them, rather than ahead of them. They accept the world [venant de] outside and have no problem with it», says the owner of the Auberge de l’Archipel.
Global warming, an obstacle in the way
Although the White Route is one of the few transmission belts for the arrival of the coronavirus in these island villages, this snowmobile trail is itself threatened by a completely different spectrum.
Global warming jeopardizes the very existence of the white route, which gives more freedom to the Bas-Côtiers in winter, since their villages are still not connected by route 138.
Elected officials from the Lower North Shore, including the administrator of the MRC du Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent, Darlene Rowsell-Roberts, are concerned regarding the possible disappearance of the Route blanche due to climate change.
[La Route blanche] is part of my life. It’s wonderful, because I can go to La Romaine in the morning, and if I want, I can continue to Kegaska in the same day. The White Route gives us the freedom to choose our own schedule, at an affordable cost toosays Rowsell-Roberts.
© Marc-Antoine Mageau /Radio-Canada
The administrator of the MRC du Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent, Darlene Rowsell-Roberts.
She asserts that losing the Route Blanche would mean losing part of the identity of the Bas-Côtiers.
According to Ms. Rowsell-Roberts, the White Route helps the Bas-Côtiers overcome the isolation to which they are condemned, due to the lack of paved roads and regular maritime transport during the winter.
With information from Lambert Gagné-Coulombe