This year was a classic example of what we're seeing more and more. The road was available for a significantly shorter period of time, and the danger is that if you can't get all your goods in within that window you're stuck for a year. You have no other option in northern Ontario, you just do not. I suspect it would be exactly the same in almost every other region. You just miss your window, period, end of conversation. Whatever you're going to do on this winter's road needs to happen on the following winter's road, because your window could be 20 to 25 days.
There was a time when 60 to 65 days was not uncommon for a non-commercial road. You just don't get that any more. That's a function of where we are today.
One elder said to me that this is the same weather he remembers in 1947. Now, I'm not sure if that's a function of global warming or that's a function of where we are in the cycle of weather, but regardless, we are where we are, and winter is significantly shorter than it has been in recent decades.