Most of Ontario's 23 rest stops on 400 series highways are aging and slated for closure and renovations. With gas company leases expiring simultaneously, it means long gaps between stations, and the distances will soon become longer in spots between Windsor and the Quebec line.
Critics say the government renovation plan makes no sense, is unsafe and is killing jobs in the communities near the stations.
The government says the rest stops are in rough shape and that the rebuilding will create many jobs over the next five years.
With this in mind, the Star hit the road with a full coffee mug and gas tank and headed east.
BOWMANVILLE
Finished coffee while still leaving Toronto on the DVP, which was bumper to bumper. Need more. Can't bear the thought of waiting for the first official government rest stop on 401.
The Fifth Wheel, a privately owned truck stop just off the highway, is filled with big rigs and a busload of tourists from Quebec, who snap pictures of the trucks. They can order a sit-down breakfast here and, in a store loaded with travel necessities, buy puppy and frog figurines, "Support the Troops" T-shirts and hex lug nut covers.
The coffee is excellent.
Out back, Spencer Jefferies, 19, pumps diesel. The on-highway rest stop closures mean more business for the service stations and truck stops like this one that pepper the exits along the 401.
"If it brings more business to us, it might be good," says Jefferies. "Tell 'em to come on down to the Fifth Wheel."
At another pump, Charlie Woods, a Mississauga orthodontist, and two hunting buddies refuel a diesel pickup truck belonging to one of the men, a farmer. The truck is decked out with an extra field tank, which means they will make it to the Quebec cabin where they'll spend a week hunting for moose without having to stop again for fuel.
Still, nature will call, and Woods says he often makes use of the rest stops, which he notes are getting "pretty dingy, pretty tired. But I guess they have a function."
The farmer in the group has no use for the official stops and boasts about his bladder: "My wife says I'm like a camel."
PORT HOPE
Just passed three signs, one in French, warning that there is no fuel for next 153 kilometres. Bladder straining so must stop to "break the seal."
Trucker Steven Spears of Cambridge, en route to Montreal, has stopped at this government service stop for a Tim Hortons coffee and doughnut. He prefers the government stops over truck stops because he finds it easier to manoeuvre his rig. He is upset about how the government is rebuilding the centres and says some have sat closed for more than a year.
"It'll impact everyone. It makes no sense. They should have planned it a little better."
Inside the centre, a sign in the men's washroom assures that the place was "certified" clean a week earlier. It remains clean. There is plenty of soap and one can buy a disposable toothbrush.
Outside, Glenn Degroof, 29, and Laura Bauters, 23, of Belgium, take a smoke break. They're headed east after visiting Toronto and Niagara Falls, and, heeding the highway warnings, stopped for fuel. The two have travelled across Europe and speak highly of Ontario, even its aging road stops.
"We've seen worse," says Degroof. "It's not as modern but it's clean."
ODESSA
Feeling peckish. Beef jerky in order.
The warning signs have conjured up visions of motorists pulling off the highway to relieve themselves and of others wandering around with jerry cans, out of fuel and baking in the sun. Neither are spotted in this gap. It must be noted that one can always just leave the highway at most any exit between Port Hope and Kingston and find 24-hour food and fuel. This is not a desert by any means.
That said, having braved the 153 "no-fuel-and-no-rest-stop" kilometres and soldiering on past the closed Trenton stop, travellers stretch and walk dogs at this aging service centre. Inside, the men's room appears clean, but the urinals are permanently stained and smell of urine.
Staff here are nervous. They don't know when this stop might be closed and their jobs gone. It could be years, since the government has said it will do what it can to ensure the service-less gaps are not too big. "We're next," figures one worker.
"I sure as heck don't agree with the closures," says another from Tim Hortons. "A lot of people are going to be unemployed." And, echoing the earlier truck driver, "I don't think they planned it out very well."
The travel centre's manager from HMSHost, a company that specializes in running such centres across North America, arrives and shuts down the chat. "We don't know anything," she says, and tells staff not to talk to a reporter.
MALLORYTOWN
Hungry.
Staff here aren't worried about talking. On Wednesday, the service centres on both sides of the highway will close.
A plaque at the Mallorytown North centre commemorates the 1968 completion of the final stretch of the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway. The 401 delivered a financial hit to the towns and villages along the old Highway 2.
Now, the closure of the two service stations on the super highway is causing another hit to this area between Kingston and Brockville.
On a picnic table at the south travel centre, Diane Polstra, 50, scratches a lottery ticket hoping to strike it rich. She will be looking for work come 10 a.m. Wednesday after five years as a maintenance worker.
"It's done," says Polstra, who lives 45 minutes away. Staff have seen this coming for two years, she says, and only at the last moment did anybody – notably local MPP Bob Runciman – pay any attention. "It's too late to help."
Hundreds of service jobs will be lost during reconstructions of the rest stops, but the province says, upon completion, some 2,500 jobs will have been generated.
Polstra intends to take advantage of government retraining money to go back to school.
To do what?
"Funeral director," she says, laughing. "I want to pick a career I know is going to be there. The baby boomers are a'coming."
"At least no one will talk to you," pipes up Linda Hill, 53, on a smoke break. Hill has an interview with a data collection company.
Both would love to land something full-time, but "it's all service work and it's all minimum wage," says Hill.
Polstra finishes scratching. She doesn't win.
TRENTON
Now Toronto-bound. Have to pee so bad that my teeth are floating.
Although the station on the south side is closed, with backhoes tackling storage tanks, the one on the north side seems untouched. Slated to be rebuilt, it sits behind a fence.
It's an interim station – no fuel. There are two portables, one with washrooms, the other a snack bar with vending machines.
"The washrooms are very clean," says Johanna Cameron, 32, a civil servant from Ottawa travelling to Toronto with her mother and 6-week-old son, Nicolas.
He needed a change and Cameron was pleased to see that the restroom had a baby table.
The snacks, however, "suck," she said.
