Robert Martineau worked for an Ontario firm (Rayner Construction Ltd.) which worked on the construction of Highway 16. They built 15 miles of the road from the Kyex River west towards Prince Rupert. The highway construction commenced quickly after the request by U.S. and Canadian military authorities for a back-up land route in case of a Japanese invasion on the North Coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 during World War II. This was Martineau's war effort as he was exempt from military service. Martineau lived in Port McNicholl, Ontario.