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January
1998 Newsletter
"Progress"
- Regional Style
Two
weeks before the recent municipal elections, the regional
government issued 60,000 copies of a newsletter in defence
of the north-south Red Hill Expressway. They were delivered
to homes within a mile of the east-west and north-south
expressways.
It
is unclear who made the decision to put out this clearly
political document, apparently intended to assist pro-expressway
candidates in the election. Officially it came from the
Regional Roads Department, but the newsletter was not reviewed
by the Transportation Services Committee which is supposed
to oversee that Department. Allegedly no prior approval
was needed because the Department is pre-authorized to issue
a Progress Report (PR) twice a year about the Red Hill Creek
Expressway Project.
Previous
issues of this PR have been devoted to announcing public
meetings, warning of road closures and bus route changes,
and reporting on the construction work along the east-west
expressway. The purpose of this issue, however, was obviously
political and is stated on page one: "During the past
several months, questions have been raised regarding the
justification for the construction of the north-south portion
of the roadway. This progress report provides a consolidated
response."
The
"questions" which the newsletter tries to answer
are all ones raised by Friends of Red Hill Valley. Clearly,
its main purpose was to counter our efforts to educate the
public. Over the past year, we have distributed over 40,000
flyers explaining the implications of the expressway project.
Of course our printing costs were paid for by $10 and $20
donations, not regional tax dollars. Similarly, dozens of
volunteers delivered the Friends of Red Hill flyers, not
the paid employees of Canada Post. This is the way "democracy"
works in Hamilton-Wentworth. Residents make donations to
tell people the truth, and then their taxes are used to
counter their efforts with lies.
Lies
is not too strong a description for the PR. A review
of its contents finds hardly a single paragraph in which
falsehoods are not found.
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