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January
1998 Newsletter
Preparing for the Final Battle for the Valley
Forty years of defending the Red Hill Valley comes down to three crucial months. Between now and the end of March, the new regional council must finalize its budget and decide if the most expensive project in the region's history will proceed.
Construction is scheduled to start in the fall with the first step likely being the clearcutting of 47,000 trees, but the path to that disaster is far from clear. In addition to having to find enough money, the project will almost certainly face a federal environmental assessment, and the growing anger of residents who are beginning to grasp the full consequences of a project that many thought would never happen.
We now know that the price of proceeding will include major destruction along the beach, with either Hutch's or Lakeland on the sacrificial block. It will also mean the widening of the QEW by at least two lanes on top of the provincial class one wetlands that the Region swore it wouldn't touch.
Previously pro-road politicians are squirming as word leaks out that the Region hasn't yet even figured out how its "done deal" expressway will connect to the QEW.
The last two months has also seen the revelation of a 20-year-old secret pact between Stoney Creek Council and the Centennial Ratepayers Association that bans any improvements to Highway 20 until such time as Red Hill valley is paved.
A secret regional government study detailing the impacts of the expressway on air quality has surfaced (see enclosed leaflet), and the expected noise levels are also dribbling out.
More bombshells lie just ahead as everyone comes to understand exactly what Don Ross meant when he said the Region would build the road "come hell or high water".
Friends of Red Hill Valley also has a few surprises up its sleeve. We have known the schedule for the final act for more than a year, and we have prepared carefully for it. There is a role for all of our members. The curtain rises on January 5.
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