Yesterday I talked about the frustrating task of hunting down candidates in Cambridge to get their opinion on a proposed 400-series highway between Cambridge and Brantford. While it would be paranoid of me to suggest that the candidates were avoiding me, it made me wonder when the Minister of Transportation Donna Cansfield announced provincial approval for the construction of a 400-series-style-highway between Kitchener and Guelph.
The upgrade of Highway 7 (currently a two-lane road between the two centres) would be a four-lane divided highway running north of the current highway, from a new Wellington/Conestoga Parkway interchange in east Kitchener to the northern end of the Hanlan Expressway in northwestern Guelph. The 18 kilometre long project, expected to cost $400 million by 2014 (the earliest projected completion date), was first proposed in 1989, and sustains spirited opposition due to the fact that it bisects a significant wetland, it addresses congestion that only exists during rush hour, it bolsters a single link between two major centres rather than opening up new links, and ignores public transit alternatives.
But once Cansfield made the announcement, local candidates for the three major parties lined up to express support. The following are quotes taken by a reporter for the local newspaper, The Record:
- Rick Moffat (NDP candidate for Kitchener-Centre): “It’s not only a good idea, it is a good idea that’s 19 years overdue.”
- Michael Harris (PC candidate for Kitchener-Conestoga): “We’ve studied it to death. Let’s get on with it.”
- Leeanna Pendergast (Liberal candidate for Kitchener-Conestoga): “(The new highway) will reduce our stress levels, which is a good thing for all of us.”
The new highway will cut travel times between Kitchener and Guelph by 11 minutes, but requires the displacement of 5 businesses and 11 private homes, not to mention paving over about 114 hectares of viable farmland affecting a dozen farms. Apparently the option of widening the current highway from two lanes to four was dismissed by planners, because it could not meet expected demand beyond 2028.
Only the Green Party maintains strong opposition to this project. Judy Greenwood-Speers, candidate in Kitchener-Waterloo, was blunt: “To build a new highway, through the wetlands and the agricultural land, is a foolish waste of money, and does not meet our transportation needs.”
The debate has raged for such a long while, it might be a relief to finally come to a decision, one way or the other, but politicians and planners aren’t looking at the big picture. The Liberal government is proposing spending $12 billion over the next twelve years to launch Move Ontario 2020 — a plan to dramatically increase public transportation infrastructure throughout the Greater Toronto Area, largely because the roads there are at capacity, and there is little room to build more.
Under Move Ontario 2020, the Liberals are proposing to support Waterloo Region’s plans for an LRT between Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, but little has been committed to improve public transportation connections between Waterloo Region, Guelph and Brantford or between Waterloo Region and Toronto. Currently even Intercity bus services have pulled out of serving the market between Guelph, Cambridge and Brantford, leaving people with no choice but to drive along the proposed route for Highway 424. Current estimates suggest that train service between London and Toronto can be bolstered by seven peak-direction trains per day for less than $84 million. That’s a fraction of the projected cost to upgrade Highway 7.
There is more that can be done to serve our growing region without adding asphalt, but unfortunately the politicians from our three leading parties do not seem to have the imagination to consider it.
Editor’s note: if major party candidates are of a single mind on government spending priorities, like highway building, how then are voters, who favour strategies different than any of their likely representatives, to find satisfaction with the election outcome?
The Province has decided that the Kitchener/ Waterloo/ Guelph/ Brantford/ Woodstock area is the next area of growth in Ontario.
Yes, government transit is needed, but so are new roads connecting the various communities in this area. While government transit may be an excellent alternative to moving people, you still need to move goods around. You need roads for that. I would rather have the government being proactive and securing future transportation corridors than waiting till there is a problem and have to spend even more money.
Some people like to point to Europe as an example of good government transit. But these people also forget that Europe has been spending billions of dollars on expressways to connect cities – the goods have to be shipped somehow.
Enough people have died on that damn highway. Sure stopping urban sprawl is good. But not attending funerals is better.
Um, excuse me?
There are more traffic deaths in Toronto than there are murders, but you don’t see them trying to relaunch the Spadina Expressway. Respectfully, get some perspective, will you?
The highway is congested during rush hours, but that can be taken care of with widening. Safety issues can be taken care of with small changes. The bulk of the highway is congestion free at most hours of the day. I know because I drive it regularly at those times. To create a 400 series highway to the north of the current road is overkill.
Perspective???
The Spadina Expressway was never a highway through farmer’s fields. And a subway was constructed along the alignment. Also I don’t see traffic driving 100 km/hr down Bathurst Street.
There’s many reasons to object to highway construction, but to compare a rural expressway to Spadina is insulting.