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September
2002 Newsletter
Spectator
says: "New Highway Should be Last Resort on Congestion"
The
above headline adorned a recent editorial in the Hamilton
Spectator! What is going on? The editorial declared:
"The groundswell of public concern is powerful evidence
that it would be smart of the government to accelerate improvements
to existing roads and public transit before building another
new highway through the heart of this area."
The
"area" referred to is the Niagara Escarpment.
As you know, the proposed Red Hill Expressway will smash
a hole in the face of the escarpment that is 15 metres deep
and 70 metres wide, and over half of the entire expressway
will be within the protected Niagara Escarpment Plan Area
and World Biosphere Reserve.
However,
the focus of the editorial is the proposed Mid Peninsula
Highway (MPH), not the proposed Red Hill Creek one. That
the Spectator would take such a stand reflects the
massive protest movement that has emerged over the summer
to the multi-billion dollar MPH. The Coalition Against Paving
the Escarpment (COPE) has already recruited 900 members.Other
opponents include Burlington's city council and its Conservative
MPP, as well as the Niagara Escarpment Commission, Conservation
Halton and both the Liberal and NDP provincial opposition
parties.
Most
significantly, nearly all of these opponents are raising
fundamental criticisms such as "why are we building
any more expressways, period?", "isn't the air
pollution bad enough already?", "what about rail
and public transit options?", "why spend millions
to subsidize the trucking industry?" and "what
century is the Ministry of Transportation living in?"
Of course, all of these questions apply equally to the Red
Hill Expressway.
We
should not miss this opportunity to unite in a common cause.
The MPH offers other connections to Red Hill. It will certainly
be connected to any valley road or at a minimum will dump
truck traffic onto this area (it's much shorter than following
the MPH around the airport, Peter's Corners and Waterdown
to Burlington). MPP Ted McMeekin has already asked for a
new environmental assessment of Red Hill in conjunction
with the MPH because of these implications. There is also
a real possibility that Red Hill may become the fall-back
route for the MPH (it is currently shown as one of the rejected
alternatives).
We
have all hoped that Hamilton might eventually be dragged
into the modern period. At least with regards to the MPH
this finally appears to be happening. Can we make it happen
for Red Hill too?
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