Lillooet mayor says small businesses hit hard by Highway 99 closure

Highway 99 north of Lillooet has now been closed for one full week and there's still no word on when it will reopen.

A section of road in the Ten Mile Slide area has crumbled away.

In the meantime, the closure is starting to hurt small businesses in Lillooet and a state of emergency declared by the Xaxli'p First Nation remains in effect.

Mayor Marg Lampman says the closure affects the goods coming in and out of the community when truck drivers have to take the extra two hour detour.

"They get more bang for their buck by doing work in bigger centres than they do for rural communities and that's always been a sore point for rural communities because we want to prosper and we are constantly being held back by the lack of funding put into our infrastructure."

Lampman says residents are tired of temporary fixes and she wants the province to build a new road altogether, but she says the province is hesitant to assign so much to a rural problem.

To listen to the full interview, click on the link: Lillooet mayor says small businesses hit hard by Highway 99 closure.