So What Do You Do When You Can’t Afford the Million Dollar Road?

When we first started talking about building a home on our farm, we thought we were entering the usual world of rural logistics: wells, power, a long driveway, maybe a culvert or two.

We did not expect the first real question to be about a public road carrying a price tag that approaches a million dollars per kilometre.

But here we are.

After months of conversations, meetings, and trying to find a shared path forward with the County and other road users, it became clear that upgrading the existing access corridor to current standards would be an enormous undertaking. Not just financially, but structurally, emotionally, the kind of infrastructure usually tied to subdivisions, not a single farmhouse on working land.

We had offered to share costs. We had hoped there might be a way to reflect how rural agricultural corridors actually function. In the end, the scale of the road work being discussed was simply beyond what a small farming family could reasonably carry.

So we’ve had to ask a hard question:

If we can’t make the public road solution work right now, what can we do to keep moving forward?

The answer, at least for the moment, is to explore alternatives that allow us to continue farming and planning for our future on this land without waiting for a perfect policy solution.

That may mean looking at private access options. It may mean longer timelines. It may mean adjusting expectations about how and when a home becomes possible.

None of those paths are simple, cheap, or ideal. But farming rarely is.

What we do know is this:

We’re not the only family facing this kind of challenge. River-valley land, historic road allowances, and modern infrastructure standards don’t always line up neatly. When they don’t, it creates gaps that small producers feel first and hardest.

We’re choosing to stay in the conversation, with the County, with neighbours, and with the broader policy work now underway, because this isn’t just about one house. It’s about how future farm families will navigate the same questions.

In the meantime, we’ll keep doing what farmers have always done when conditions change:

Adjust.
Problem-solve.
Take the next practical step available.

Even when the road ahead is longer than we expected.

This wraps up the “Field Notes on a Rural Road” series.

We’re grateful to be able to share our experience, and we hope it adds clarity for others navigating rural land, access, and policy. If this story connects with your own, we’re always open to thoughtful conversation — that’s how rural communities move forward.