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January
2001 Newsletter
Fear
of Alternatives
Terry
Cooke says somebody else has to come up with an alternative
to locating an expressway in the Red Hill Valley. This is
the same fellow who has just spent $2 million lawyers and
lobbyists to try and prevent the examination of alternatives
in a federal environmental assessment. Cooke's comments
were part of a full page interview published in the Hamilton
Spectator on January 3. The relevant portion is reprinted
at the end of this article.
The
reality is that the regional government last looked at "alternatives"
in 1979 and has repeated refused to re-examine this issue,
despite several efforts by the provincial government. In
1990, the provincial NDP government announced it wouldn't
fund a valley route and asked for a new investigation of
alternative routes. The region responded by going to court
(unsuccessfully) and then adamantly refusing to consider
any non-valley options. In 1993 the province tried to break
the deadlock by appointing a former conservative cabinet
minister, David Crombie, as an honest broker. Crombie hired
professional transportation planners who concluded that
no expressway is needed and all foreseeable traffic needs
could be met by adding two lanes to an existing escarpment
crossing (Mt. Albion) and linking this to an existing four-lane
road (Woodward Avenue). The following year, an independent
provincial transportation enquiry (Transfocus 2021) determined
that Highway 20 could be widened to six lanes between Mud
Street and the QEW for $33 million (about one-sixth the
cost of the proposed valley expressway). The study noted
that the right-of-ways for this widening were already in
public hands and that no property would need to be acquired
for the widening.
How
did Mr. Cooke and the Regional Council respond? They rejected
the Crombie road as "too slow" and ignored the
Transfocus study. The following year (1995) they initiated
a major regional transportation planning exercise to create
a new Regional Transportation Plan. They instructed the
planners to ASSUME that an expressway would be constructed
in the Red Hill Valley. There was no investigation of any
alternatives.
In
the past three years, local government dug its head further
into the sand on the issue of alternatives. In the first
place, they connected the four-lane Lincoln Alexander with
the four-lane Mud Street by way of a TWO-LANE roadway that
cannot be widened without tearing down two overpasses. Then
they turned down a staff recommendation to widen Highway
20 between King Street and Queenston Road, and instead installed
street lights, sidewalks and various decorative walls on
this roadway to make it more difficult and expensive to
widen it in the future. And finally, they went to court
and wasted $2 million on lawyers and lobbyists in an attempt
to prevent the federal assessment from examining alternatives.
EXCERPT FROM THE SPECTATOR INTERVIEW
SPECTATOR:
The federal court will soon rule on the region's case on
the Red Hill Creek Expressway; the region wants to end the
federal environmental assessment. How likely is it that
this road is ever going to be built?
COOKE:
I think it will be built. The question will be at what cost
and in what duration.
SPECTATOR:
Why does it have to be that route?
COOKE:
In the absence of somebody coming along and showing us how
we're going to meet the transportation capacity needs of
the region in a way that doesn't fundamentally affect whole
communities or environmentally sensitive areas — and
I certainly haven't seen anybody bring that alternative
forward — we have exhausted the landscape in searching
(for other possible routes).
SPECTATOR:
From a practical perspective, why are all the other routes
unworkable? Why couldn't you just bring it down the hill
somewhere else?
COOKE: Because there is no easy somewhere else. I mean,
we have a largely urbanized area. All of them will impact
upon the natural configuration of the Niagara Escarpment
and all of them will face considerable community impact.
And I guess the question is ... at some point, people of
good will say the democratic process has run its course.
The thing is two-thirds completed, and it's time that people
accepted that the decision has been legitimately taken.
SPECTATOR:
What if the region loses the court case and the environmental
assessment goes against it?
COOKE:
Then I think the new council is going to have to step back
and decide how it wants to proceed. I will say this: I think
at that point the onus on the federal government and (Hamilton
cabinet minister) Sheila Copps to not just criticize and
obstruct, but in fact to provide a viable alternative, is
going to get pretty intense.
SPECTATOR:
Despite all of the economic arguments made, how do you feel
about the loss of what will be lost?
COOKE:
Fred, you mentioned the Chedoke Expressway, the 403, earlier.
There's no question that there was environmental impact
that has been largely mitigated. But in the absence of this
corridor in west Hamilton, it would have made it impossible
to function in this urban community. All of the same considerations
were there at the time. It impacted on the Chedoke Creek
Valley; it impacted on the Chedoke Golf Course; it affected
neighbourhoods. But ultimately it was a necessity in terms
of developing this urban area.
SPECTATOR:
So you don't feel some sense of loss for the Red Hill Creek
Valley?
COOKE:
Do I have some reservations any time we touch an area that
is environmentally sensitive? Of course I do. Is it an acceptable
tradeoff in terms of the impact on the community's life?
I believe conscientiously that it is, and I also accept
that there will be some that will never accept that judgment.
That is part of life in a democracy. "
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