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November
17, 2003
JOIN THE WALK TO QUEEN'S PARK
To Stop the Expressway and Save the Niagara Escarpment!
A
group of Hamilton residents are walking to Queen's Park
to ask Dalton McGuinty to stop the provincial government
and the city of Hamilton from blasting the largest ever
road cut in the face of the Niagara Escarpment — 80-metres
wide, 15-metres deep and nearly half a kilometre long —
for the proposed Red Hill Creek Expressway.
Participants
and well-wishers will gather at 10 am on Thursday, November
20 near Mud Street at the top of Red Hill Valley, near where
blasting of the escarpment is scheduled to start in January.
About four kilometres of the proposed expressway lies within
the World Biosphere Reserve. The Bruce Trail (Niagara to
Tobermory) is currently blocked and guarded by private security
at Mount Albion Road and Mud Street where hundreds of trees
from the Carolinian forest have been clearcut in preparation
for the blasting.
The
dynamiting of the escarpment is funded 50-50 by Hamilton
and Queen’s Park. It is proceeding without a Development
Permit from the Niagara Escarpment Commission. The City
is relying on a 1985 road approval that didn’t contemplate
any new cut in the escarpment, a United Nations designated
World Biosphere Reserve.
The
walkers will be carrying a large gift for Premier McGuinty
— a cheque for $122 million — the amount that
the province has promised for an expressway down the middle
of Canada's largest city park.
The
organizers say "the people of Hamilton have no where
to go with their city council when it comes to rational
discussion to save east Hamilton's last large greenspace,
the Red Hill Valley."
The
group will take several days to make their way on foot to
Queen's Park to ask Mr. McGuinty and the Environment Minister
to take back their $122 million funding for the expressway,
and instead reinvest in measures for Hamilton that would
curb urban sprawl, support public transit, protect greenspace
and reduce reliance on single-occupancy vehicles. Alternatively,
Mr. McGuinty might want to take half the money back and
spend the remaining $60 million on an alternative highway
design that preserves the Red Hill Valley and expands the
existing Highway 20.
The
walkers will travel down the valley to Lake Ontario and
along the beach strip to Burlington on Thursday. The walk
will continue through Oakville, Mississauga, and into Toronto
early next week. Accommodations and public events are being
organized along the route featuring the Red Hill Road Show,
a multi-media presentation on the ongoing struggle to save
the Red Hill Valley. The group will also be distributing
postcards addressed to Environment Minister Leona Dombrowsky.
At
Queen's Park the walkers will ask Mr. McGuinty to take back
the provincial money for the project and sign a pledge that
would see the money applied wisely, in the interest of health
of future generations in Hamilton and the planet.
All
supporters of Red Hill Valley and the Niagara Escarpment
are invited to participate in some portion of the walk
and/or events along the way, and at Queen’s Park.
If you can assist, or to obtain more information, please
contact Rae at rachelle.mitchell@sympatico.ca
or 905-529-0274.
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