Comments on: Montfort Hospital: Facts and figures http://www.stopthebridge.org/2009/01/montfort-hospital-facts-and-figure/ No to Kettle Island. Yes to Healthy Communities. Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:46:48 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Rob McCarthy http://www.stopthebridge.org/2009/01/montfort-hospital-facts-and-figure/comment-page-1/#comment-1793 Rob McCarthy Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:30:20 +0000 http://www.stopthebridge.org/?p=621#comment-1793 Cost keeps coming up as a major consideration in every report from the contractors. I'm guessing this is because the NCC, and the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau, have been busy over the past 40 years acquiring land on either side in preparation for this bridge at this location. Would the results of the consultants be any different if the cost of acquiring land at any of the other sites was removed from the equation?? I think it would. In light of recent revelations regarding council recommendations from the past, this whole thing reeks of backroom dealings and underhanded processes to ram through a bridge in our area. It might be good to know who has realestate holdings or interests along the corridor on either side of Kettle Island, and stands to benefit from a bridge at this location rather than at another location. No one has mentioned the elementary school playground that is mere metres from the existing avaiation parkway road,and the multitude of children that routinely cross the aviation parkway everyday on their way to and from schools on either side of the parkway; nor the joggers, walkers, and cyclists that use the parkway everyday. A road that they say will have to be widened and has been cleared for the transportation of hazardous material. Just ask anyone that has experienced it what close proximity to a major truck route does to the saleability of their property and market value of their home. None of us in Rockliffe Mews development was informed by the builder, the city or the NCC of their plans for the parkway when our development was being offered for sale. I doubt many of us would have purchased had we known that a major interprovincial truck route would be metres from our backyards, along with the sound and air pollution that goes with it. I have respiratory problems and chose the area because it had limited exposure to traffic exhaust so I could breathe easier. These trucks by the way are exempt from emission controls, so they dump even more pollutants into the air. Building it at lower duck island or at the other location makes sound economic, environmental, and logical sense and addresses present and future population growth and transportation needs for the entire region. Kettle island does not. Cost keeps coming up as a major consideration in every report from the contractors. I’m guessing this is because the NCC, and the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau, have been busy over the past 40 years acquiring land on either side in preparation for this bridge at this location. Would the results of the consultants be any different if the cost of acquiring land at any of the other sites was removed from the equation?? I think it would.
In light of recent revelations regarding council recommendations from the past, this whole thing reeks of backroom dealings and underhanded processes to ram through a bridge in our area. It might be good to know who has realestate holdings or interests along the corridor on either side of Kettle Island, and stands to benefit from a bridge at this location rather than at another location. No one has mentioned the elementary school playground that is mere metres from the existing avaiation parkway road,and the multitude of children that routinely cross the aviation parkway everyday on their way to and from schools on either side of the parkway; nor the joggers, walkers, and cyclists that use the parkway everyday. A road that they say will have to be widened and has been cleared for the transportation of hazardous material. Just ask anyone that has experienced it what close proximity to a major truck route does to the saleability of their property and market value of their home. None of us in Rockliffe Mews development was informed by the builder, the city or the NCC of their plans for the parkway when our development was being offered for sale. I doubt many of us would have purchased had we known that a major interprovincial truck route would be metres from our backyards, along with the sound and air pollution that goes with it. I have respiratory problems and chose the area because it had limited exposure to traffic exhaust so I could breathe easier. These trucks by the way are exempt from emission controls, so they dump even more pollutants into the air.

Building it at lower duck island or at the other location makes sound economic, environmental, and logical sense and addresses present and future population growth and transportation needs for the entire region. Kettle island does not.

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