Dear Elected Representative:
If you are opposed to the Kettle Island bridge, NOW is the time to write to your elected representatives. Decisions could be made imminently so it is essential to formally voice your concerns without delay.
The following letter has been prepared to give you some ideas, but feel free to edit in any way. And please make use of any other material posted on this website if you’re looking for more information or ideas.
See below for details about who to send this to.
———————————————————————-
Dear [elected representative],
I am writing to you to ask that you reject the choice of Kettle Island as a crossing point for a new inter-provincial bridge for Ottawa.
Most citizens of Ottawa agree that a new bridge is needed across the Ottawa River, primarily to remove large truck traffic from the downtown Ottawa core. A recent technical study has concluded that the crossing point of the new bridge should be in the east end of the city of Ottawa, across Kettle Island, chiefly because this site would “attract” the most trucks.
In addition, the City of Ottawa now proposes to ban truck traffic from the present truck route, the King Edward corridor, as soon as the new bridge is built – because of the negative impacts of truck traffic on human health and well being. In other words, heavy truck traffic will be funnelled across the new bridge, despite the fact that the proposed location is a densely populated residential and recreational area.
I am writing to ask you to act now to ensure that the proposed Kettle Island location be rejected, for the following reasons:
- A truck and commuter highway would be built along the most heavily populated corridor of all the options studied. Homes and quality of life would be destroyed.
- This corridor would route hazardous materials and 18-wheeled trucks through several communities. It increases car and truck traffic in established residential communities and adds traffic to already congested roads – and in a location where pedestrian and bicycle traffic is encouraged.
- National institutions such as the Aviation Museum and RCMP musical ride stables are located along this corridor and subject to the same hazards. It jeopardizes the future of Rockcliffe Airport and the operations of the RCMP musical ride, its pastures, stables and museum.
- The truck route would pass right beside the Montfort Hospital and Long Term Care Facility; trucks would block its ambulance entrance and jeopardize the care of its patients.
- It would turn the Aviation Parkway into a four-lane truck route and the Rockcliffe Parkway into a commuter route with the loss of usable recreational paths and parkland.
- It would negatively impact the environmentally significant Kettle Island, which is owned by The Nature Conservancy of Canada.
- It would not address transportation needs of the 21st century—public transit and future growth outside the core.
The consultants have claimed that the Kettle Island site would be the cheapest option, but that conclusion was reached only by loading other options with costs such as highway widening that were to occur anyway, and excluding similar costs from the Kettle Island calculations. Moreover, once the cost of mitigation of all the negative effects is included, Kettle Island is no longer the cheapest option.
Despite the fact that there are much better options, it is now being proposed that the technical study move on to a more detailed examination of the Kettle Island site without regard to the serious failings in the first phase of the study.
Please help us to ensure that the Kettle Island site is removed from consideration.
Yours truly,
———————————————————————-
Who to send this to:
While you are encouraged to send you comments to everyone listed on our Contacts page, key influencers and decision-makers who require your immediate attention and focus are as follow. Don’t delay!
Ottawa City Councillors
Send an email to andrew.lomas@ottawa.ca and ask him to circulate your message to the Mayor and to all Councillors.
Dalton McGuinty, Premier
Legislative Building
Queen’s Park
Toronto ON M7A 1A1
Fax:(416) 325-3745.
dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Honourable Jim Bradley
Minister of Transportation
Correspondence Unit
3rd Floor, Ferguson Block
77 Wellesley Street West
Toronto, Ontario M7A 1Z8
jbradley.mpp@liberal.ola.org
The Honourable John Gerretsen
Minister of the Environment
12th Floor, 135 St. Clair Avenue West
Toronto, Ontario
M4V 1P5
Telephone: (416) 314-6790
Fax: (416) 314-7337
jgerretsen.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Hon. Madeleine Meilleur
MPP for Ottawa-Vanier
Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs
237 Montreal Rd Vanier, ON K1L 6C7
Telephone: (613) 744-4484 Fax: (613) 744-0889
E-mail: mmeilleur.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Hon. Yasir Naqvi, MPP
MPP for Ottawa-Centre
204- 411 Roosevelt Ave.
Ottawa ON K2A 3X9
Tel: 613-722-6414
Fax: 613-722-6703
ynaqvi.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Hon. Phil McNeely, MPP
MPP for Ottawa-Orléans
6- 110 Bearbrook Rd
Gloucester ON K1B 5R2
Tel 613-834-8679
Fax 613-834-7647
pmcneely.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Hon. Jim Watson
MPP for Ottawa West-Nepean
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing
Constituency
201- 2249 Carling Ave
Ottawa ON K2B 7E9
Tel 613-721-8075
Fax 613-721-5756
jwatson.mpp@liberal.ola.org
The Honourable Lawrence Cannon
Minister of Foreign Affairs*
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: (613) 992-5516
Fax: (613) 992-6802
EMail: Cannon.L@parl.gc.ca
Web Site: www.lawrencecannon.com
* We understand that Lawrence Cannon will retain responsibility for the NCC
Russell Mills – Chair
National Capital Commission
202–40 Elgin Street
Ottawa, Canada K1P 1C7
613-239-5000 or 1 800 465-1867 (toll free)
info@ncc-ccn.ca, ATTN: Russell Mills
Marie Lemay – CEO
National Capital Commission
202–40 Elgin Street
Ottawa, Canada K1P 1C7
613-239-5000 or 1 800 465-1867 (toll free)
mlemay@ncc-ccn.ca
Loading ...
January 18th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
When you write to the MPPs and NCC, It’s also very important to stress that Kettle Island is the only option that does NOT link into public transit.
January 19th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Thanks for the feedback. I’ve added a point about public transit to the letter.
January 20th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
It may also be worthwhile indicating that a significant number of cars during the morning rushhour coming from Gatineau (and the reverse in the evening) work in downtown Ottawa and in the market. A lot of this traffic will use the Rockliffe parkway and will be going right past the Prime Minister’s residence, Gov. Generals and the U.S. embassy.
January 20th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
[...] ideas about what to say, please reference our earlier Dear Elected Representative: post, as well as any other material on this [...]
January 25th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
In Ottawa’s Growth Management Strategy “Ottawa 20/20″ it clearly has the Aviation Parkway as a future “Scenic Entry Route” to the city.
There are approx 2 scenic entry routes in the east, some in the south and many more in the west so making the Aviation Parkway a truck route is against their future planning initiatives and would only leave 1 scenic route in the east end.
Here is the link to the map:
http://ottawa.ca/city_services/planningzoning/2020/transpo/pdf/map1.pdf
Alice
January 25th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
All the following schools are within a 3 kilometer distance from the Aviation Parkway, and most are within 1-2 kilometers (or less).
1. Our Lady of Mount Carmel School (less than a block from the Aviation Parkway)
2. Queen Elizabeth Pre School & Overbrook Day Care Kindergarten
3. Rideau High school
4. Carson Grove Elementary School
5. Robert E. Wilson Public School
6. Ottawa Technical Learning Centre
7. Queen Mary Street Public School (Elementary)
8. La Cite College
9. Samuel Genest High School
10. Manor Park Pre School (near Hemlock & St Laurent)
11.École élémentaire catholique Montfort
January 25th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Combine information with my previous comment:
The Kettle Island corridor is the most heavily populated corridor with 11 or more schools and colleges surrounding the Aviation Parkway, the closest school less than a block away.
13th Annual University of California Transportation Research Conference February 16, 2007
• Freeways’ tainted air harms children’s lungs, experts say
• Lifelong damage is found in 13-year study of 3,600 Southland youngsters living within 500 yards of a highway. The Los Angeles Times, 1/26/07
• Residential proximity within 200 meters of a major roadway was strongly associated with childhood asthma and wheeze
• Risks were larger within 75 meters of a major roadway
• Heavy Duty Diesel Trucks (HDDT) emit high levels of particulate matter
• (PM) and oxides of nitrogen (NOX), and a complex mixture of gaseous air pollutants;
• 41 of these gaseous and/or particle-associated pollutants are listed in California as toxic air contaminants.
• Diesel exhaust PM has been associated with approximately 70 percent of known potential cancer risk from air toxics in Southern California (SCAQMD, 1999)
• Over 70 percent of California’s Diesel PM pollution is from the goods movement sector, and over 70 percent of these emissions were from Heavy Duty Diesel Trucks (CARB, 2006)
• Ultrafine particles (< 0.1 μm) can penetrate cell walls and the blood-brain and can be easily absorbed into vital organs
Full presentation can be read at: http://www.its.ucla.edu/uctc/PowerPoints/Houston_UCLA.pdf
Of course based on the criteria used by the committee none of this is as important as the needs of the trucks.