Editorial cartoon of an ambulance and family balancing across a fragile forest-road plank while the main highway is blocked by rockfall
Cartoon: the backup route becomes the lifeline when the main highway fails.
If 201 Forest Service Road is important enough to carry families, patients, workers and essential travel during emergencies, it is important enough to have a funded safety plan voters can inspect before election day.

BC Conservative Boundary-Similkameen candidate Kristina Vesztrovcy is campaigning on investment in 201 Forest Service Road as an emergency and evacuation route. The political source matters less than the record behind it: the road has already been pressed into service when Highway 97 failed.

On August 30, 2023, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure said Highway 97 north of Summerland remained closed after a rockslide brought down about 3,000 cubic metres of material. The ministry warned the route was not expected to reopen before Labour Day and said back-route detours were not recommended until they could be prepared with grading and signage.

The next day, the province announced that 201 Forest Service Road was available for travel between Penticton and Kelowna. It added 60 to 90 minutes over normal highway driving, was limited to passenger vehicles and light commercial vehicles, and came with a clear caveat: the forest-service-road detours were not up to normal highway standards. Drivers were told to fuel up, carry food and water, travel in daylight where possible and expect conditions to change quickly.

That is the core accountability problem. A road can be both essential and underbuilt. In a crisis, government communications leaned on 201 Road as a practical detour. In ordinary times, official resource-road guidance tells users to drive with caution, warns that weather and stream flows can change road conditions rapidly, and says not all roads have signs or barriers identifying every hazard.

The dependence did not end in 2023. In August 2026, during the Bald Range wildfire disruption, the province advised that overnight detour routes for passenger vehicles and essential travel remained open through Okanagan Falls at 201 Forest Service Road to Highway 33 between Penticton and Kelowna. Commercial vehicles and drivers unfamiliar with forest-service roads were directed to Highway 33 instead.

Meanwhile, the official North Beach rockslide project page says long-term stabilization work began in November 2025, is expected to finish in summer 2027, and carries a $23.2-million project cost. It also warns Highway 97 may need to close again with limited notice if deemed unsafe, with closures more likely during heavy rainfall or snowfall.

None of this proves 201 Road should become a full highway tomorrow. It does prove voters deserve a serious emergency-route ledger: what sections need upgrades, what standard the province is aiming for, what it would cost, who maintains it, how ambulances and fire crews would use it, and when work would happen.

The NDP record is not missing a slogan. It is missing a measurable plan for a route the public has already been told to use. When the main corridor is blocked by rock, fire or safety closure, “drive carefully” is not a transportation strategy. It is an admission that the backup route matters more than Victoria has been willing to budget for.

Sources and records