After his private member’s bill got shot down in November, MPP Guy Bourgouin (NDP — Mushkegowuk-James Bay) has vowed to reintroduce a similar bill calling for improved of winter maintenance of Northern highways.

“This is not going to go away. I intend to bring it back,” said Bourgouin, who on Thursday was on his way to Hearst for the first of two public meetings he is hosting in his riding to discuss the issue with constituents.

The second public meeting is scheduled Friday night in Kapuskasing.

“I want to hear what their concerns are and what they would like to see” in a revised bill, Bourgouin added. “We’re going to be asking to hear the stories from the constituents so we can use it in the House.”

Bourgouin’s bill, “Making Northern Ontario Highways Safer,” proposed to bump up highways 11 and 17 to the same level of winter road maintenance as the 400 series highways and the QEW in Southern Ontario.

When the bill got voted down on second reading in November, Bourgouin decried the decision of the House, laying the blame primarily on the laps of the Conservatives who hold the majority in the Ontario Legislature.

“Hopefully, when the next time we bring this private member’s bill, with the pressure we’ve been putting on the government, they will reconsider and support it,” Bourgouin told The Daily Press.

In Hearst, Bourgouin was going to be joined on the panel by Mayor Roger Sigouin as well as Fred Potvin, commander of Hearst and Kapuskasing for Cochrane EMS and Mario Villeneuve, president of Villeneuve Construction.

In Kapuskasing, he is expected to be joined on panel by the town’s mayor, Dave Plourde.

MPPs Vic Fedeli of Nipissing, Ross Romano of Sault Ste. Marie and Greg Rickford of Kenora-Rainy River — all members of the Doug Ford cabinet — were absent for second reading of the bill at Queen’s Park when it was voted down.

Hearst’s Mayor Sigouin said he was “very disappointed” with Northern MPPs in the Conservative who chose not to support a bill designed to make Northern highways safer.

“Geez, you’ve been living in the North all of your life and you are going to vote against something that is so serious to your people? How could you even face them on the street?

“When you’re talking about the safety of the people, it shouldn’t matter which party you are in.”