Stop The Kettle Island Bridge

Letter to the NCC: I fear the NCC has lost its noble purpose

Copy of a letter recently submitted to the NCC by a concerned citizen:
______

Re: Kettle Island Bridge

Dear NCC,

I am writing to strongly protest the Kettle Island Bridge. The first noble purpose of the National Capital Commission is to serve the well being of Ottawa citizens in a manner that creates national pride. In the words of your legislated authority your role is

“To build a great Capital for Canadians, specifically:

• “…to prepare plans for and assist in the development, conservation and improvement of the National Capital Region in order that the nature and character of the seat of the Government of Canada may be in accordance with its national significance….” (1958)
• “…to organize, sponsor or promote such public activities and events in the National Capital Region as will enrich the cultural and social fabric of Canada….” (1988) “

Your preference for the Kettle Island Bridge is a abrogation of your responsibility to the citizens of Ottawa and to Canadians who rely on the NCC to build cities that Jane Jacobs would be proud of – citizen oriented and placing the health and well being and mix of communities for long term prosperity as first priority in order for economies to be strong…

Instead you would give pride of place to trucks, traffic and a “cult of efficiency” as Canada’s Janice Stein describes current public policy drivers. Saving traffic maybe 10 minutes and one time construction costs at the expense of the future of the whole east end of Ottawa – is this “conservation and improvement of the National Capital Region’?

A major play area for all Ottawa communities will be lost. A waterfront that brings little boys and old Asian immigrants alike to fish in peace and boaters, tennis players, cyclists, runners and walkers to exercise en plein air will, if accessible, will be drowned in noise and exhaust. Established family oriented neighborhoods whose little children delight in the RCMP horses and the quiet and safety of the community will instead be afflicted by noise and danger and the grind of trucks in the summer air making the grade on the parkway.The horses will leave and the Montfort hospital will worry about its diagnoses.

The east end is holding on by its teeth as the growth and wealth move to west end. You are creating social problems for the future if you chose Kettle Island. Is this “enriching the cultural and social fabric of the Canada?” Is this necessary. The answer is unequivocal. No.

I fear the NCC has lost its noble purpose.

Regards,

A concerned citizen

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Town hall meeting: December 1 at Overbrook Community Centre

Want to learn more about the proposed Kettle Island bridge in an open, bilingual forum hosted by your fellow community members?  Mark your calendars:

Homes and Highways Don’t Mix
Monday, December 1st
7:00 pm
Overbrook Community Centre
31 Quill Road (view map)

This is a great opportunity to better understand the current situation, to see what steps are being taken to prevent the Kettle Island bridge, and to get involved in the fight.

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NCC Meeting – Final Details – Your participation is critical

PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND. IT IS IMPORTANT TO SHOW THE NCC YOUR OPPOSITION TO A BRIDGE AT KETTLE ISLAND.
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The NCC Opens Its Doors

Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Public Board of Directors Meeting
Annual General Meeting

Learn more about the NCC’s achievements and its plans for the year ahead. Share your ideas and comments with NCC board members about a bridge at Kettle Island.

5:15 pm Registration
6:15 pm Draw and posting of participants
6:30 pm Opening remarks by the Chair and CEO
7 pm Question and comment period
10 pm Meeting ends

A draw will determine participation during the question and comment period. Register in advance or on the night of the meeting. A follow-up will cover those questions and comments not heard during the meeting. The allotted time for each question/comment is five minutes (three minutes for the speaker and two minutes for the NCC’s response).

Hilton Lac-Leamy, Beethoven Room
3 Boulevard du Casino, Gatineau

info@ncc-ccn.ca

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Stop the Bridge: T-shirts, bumper stickers, yard signs, etc.

A Manor Park resident who also happens to be a graphic artist has contributed to the bridge fight by coming up with some anti-Kettle Island Bridge t-shirts, bumper stickers, yard signs, you name it…

These are available for purchase at http://www.cafepress.com/littleredshark/6192210.

Stock up on these items and show your support.  They would make great early Christmas gifts for friends, family, and neighbours.

A percentage of the proceeds will be donated to support the anti-Kettle Island Bridge campaign.

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NCC Board of Directors meeting – December 3rd

The next NCC Board of Directors meeting has been scheduled for December 3rd, 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm, at the Hilton Lac Leamy. The doors open at 5:30 pm and people can register to speak then. However, at 6:20 pm names will be drawn to determine who will actually get a chance to speak. In any case, written presentations can be submitted to the NCC either before or at the meeting. The tentative plan is to allow 3 minutes per speaker. Details will be confirmed this week.

The formal agenda for the meeting has not yet been established, but it is essential that as many people as possible attend to present your concerns directly to the NCC Board of Directors about the proposed Kettle Island bridge.

See you there.

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Congestion on existing roadways out of scope for study

A open editorial by Peter Jones, a Manor Park resident and associate professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, was published by the Ottawa Citizen on Nov. 15. Peter raises questions and concerns about the selection methodology, largely focused on the weightings that were assigned to the various factors.

Peter also shed new light on the traffic studies that were completed as part of the assessment, based on a discussion he had with the consultants:

I asked a consultant what studies had been done on traffic flow on streets that will intersect the new four-lane highway down to the 417/174 split. The Rockcliffe Parkway, Hemlock/Beechwood and Montreal Road are already at peak capacity during rush-hour. Thousands of commuters and trucks coming off a new bridge will jam them further. I was told that this was not looked at as it was not part of the terms of reference.

Click here for the complete article.

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Dowtown vigil for pedestrians injured or killed by trucks downtown

A few excerpts from the coverage of an event to commemorate pedestrians injured or killed by truck traffic downtown:

Ottawa Citizen:

Sheila Moore clutched her homemade sign and shivered.

The Ottawa woman was among about 30 people who gathered on the corner of King Edward Avenue and Rideau Street last night to remember people killed or injured by vehicles in this heavily-congested area. The protesters, many of whom were Lowertown residents, carried signs saying, “Our community is not an off ramp” and “No more dead pedestrians.”

Angela Rickman, president of the Lowertown Community Association, said she hoped the vigil would put a human face on the situation, which she says has been a problem for decades.

“This is a recipe for disaster,” she told the crowd. “No community should have to live with this.”

Metro Ottawa:

“Trucks need to be in a location where it can be linked to a future ring road,” said Jane Brammer, chair of the Community Action for Reasonable Analyses and Decision. “They should not be in neighbourhoods, on the front steps of hospitals or on people’s back steps or front doors.”

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Volunteers needed to circulate petitions

Two formal petitions have been prepared to protest the Kettle Island recommendation:  a provincial petition supported by MPP Madeleine Meilleur, and a federal petition supported by MP Mauril Belanger.  Once a sufficient number of signatures has been collected, these will be formally presented to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and to the Federal House of Commons.

Your help is needed to participate in a door-to-door campaign to collect signatures. We need as many signatures from as many communities as possible.  This is your chance to make a difference.

If you are willing to help, please contact Ron Cairns at rcairns191@rogers.com

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Montfort Hospital fights proposed Kettle Island bridge

At a press conference on Nov. 5th, the the Montfort Hospital formally and publicly spoke out against the Kettle Island corridor.

As covered by CBC News:

Dr. Bernard Leduc, chief of staff at Montfort Hospital, said Wednesday at a news conference that he wants the National Capital Commission to consider the hospital’s concerns that a bridge at Kettle Island in the east end would result in:

• Traffic jams that inhibit access to the hospital by ambulances, patients and staff.
• Vibrations that could affect sensitive equipment such as MRIs.
• Noise that could hamper patients’ recovery.

“When you’re sick or when you just delivered [a baby], tranquility and peace is something that’s quite important for you in order to help you get well and recuperate better,” Leduc said.

Click here to view full the article.

In a follow-up article, Steve Taylor, the project manager for this study, stated the following:

“We have talked with the hospital before and we have heard their concerns. It isn’t anything that we weren’t aware of,” he said.  “Based on other roadway projects of a similar scope and magnitude, I’m not expecting it to be a show-stopper issue.”

Click here to view that article.

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Re: “A Nightmare” Oct. 31, 2008

A great letter, unfortunately not published by the Citizen:
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Re: “A Nightmare” Oct. 31, 2008

The tragic death of yet another pedestrian along the Rideau/King Edward corridor highlights once again the need for governments to develop a permanent and sensible solution to the travesty of heavy trucking passing though the downtown core and existing residential communities.

The problem was created by short-sighted planning in the 1960s and 1970s. Let’s not blame residents of Vanier and New Edinburgh who fought valiantly, and ultimately successfully, not to have the problem merely shifted to their residential communities.

Incredibly, short-sighted planning views have once again come to the fore, in the guise of the consultants’ recommendation of Kettle Island as the preferred corridor for a new interprovincial crossing. This recommendation will not stop the carnage downtown. Under the proposed plan, the number of trucks along the Rideau/King Edward corridor in 2031 will be the same as today.

What’s more, a new killing zone will be opened up. Is a life lost at Montreal Rd. and Aviation worth any less than one lost at Cumberland and Rideau?

The Kettle Island route represents the worst possible outcome for all residents of Ottawa. It won’t solve the truck problem. It will attract the most automobile commuter traffic from Gatineau—clogging routes already overloaded with commuters and leaving Ottawa taxpayers footing the bill for increased road construction and maintenance costs. It will pose a serious threat to the Montfort Hospital. It will destroy a scenic parkway and green space. It will do nothing to encourage economic development. It will divide and degrade existing residential communities along the entire route, which is the longest possible path between Hwy 50 and Hwy174.

Bravo to Georges Bédard for opposing the Kettle Island Route and supporting a new bridge where it belongs—in a commercial/industrial area farther removed from the downtown core.

John Forsey
President, Manor Park Community Association
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Heavy truck traffic causes tragic death downtown

‘A nightmare’ – Pedestrian’s death sparks renewed fight to reroute truck traffic from downtown

An elderly woman has become the latest victim of heavy truck traffic on downtown streets after she was knocked down Friday morning and died later in hospital.

Click here for the full article, published in the Ottawa Citizen on Oct. 31.

Opponents of the Kettle Island crossing agree that the truck situation at King Edward and Rideau St. is deplorable, but the solution is not to transfer the problem to other highly populated areas such as the intersection of Montreal Rd. and Aviation Parkway – site of a hospital, high rise, pedestrians and bikers. The point is that truck routes should not run through areas where there are a lot of people.  Period.

You are encouraged to write to the Ottawa Citizen in response to this article to reinforce the point that trucks and people don’t mix.

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East-enders continue to support KI

An article in the Orleans Star discusses recent and planned activity among east-end community groups and politicians to reinforce their NIMBY position by supporting the Kettle Island crossing.

“(The groups) felt it was important they voice their opinions once again on the preferred location,” Monette says, adding that the east-end organizations previously signed letters of support for Kettle Island. “We feel strongly it is now time to move ahead with the Kettle Island option.”

I sense quite a battle brewing.  Click here for the full article.

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