Stop The Kettle Island Bridge

Ottawa City Council split and unresolved on the bridge issue

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Summary of the Feb. 11 Ottawa City Council meeting
Contributed by Gisèle Forsey

Council voted in favour of reconsidering its recommendation to remove Lower Duck from further consideration in the inter-provincial crossing study. Bloess’ motion to remove Lower Duck was allowed on a technicality and passed because councillors Hume and Bédard were away on City business. Thanks to our lobbying efforts, we did not lose any support among councillors.

The message City Council is sending the NCC is that it is split and unresolved on the bridge issue—the tactics demonstrated to date could go on indefinitely.

Thank you to all those who came to the meeting wearing buttons, even for a short time. There was a strong button-wearing contingent, including a few who stayed until the end of the 11 hour meeting, offering a visible testimony to the Mayor and all members of Council that we will not back down from this fight. There was a small group of determined residents from Orleans who stayed as well. We were balanced in our representation.

It is anticipated that Bloess will try to make as much out Council’s recommendation as he can in the media. But there is no substance to it.
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Coverage of the meeting by the Ottawa Citizen:
Feb. 12, Ottawa Citizen: Council meeting spins out of control

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Urgent: Fierce lobbying required NOW!

URGENT!

Lobbying from the Kettle Island NOW side is expected to be fierce.

We need to combat this with fierce lobbying of our own.

Please send your letter as a personal email TODAY to each of the following councillors who might be wavering (see letter below for guidance):

Rick Chiarelli
Rick.Chiarelli@ottawa.ca

Maria McRae
Maria.Mcrae@Ottawa.ca

Peggy Feltmate
Peggy.Feltmate@ottawa.ca

Alex Cullen (just in case)
Alex.Cullen@Ottawa.ca

Also include for good measure: Steve.Desroches@ottawa.ca , Diane.Deans@ottawa.ca , Eli.El-Chantiry@ottawa.ca , Jan.Harder@ottawa.ca , Kitchissippi@ottawa.ca (Christine Leadman) , and Shad.Qadri@ottawa.ca

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Dear Councillor,

I am writing regarding the issue of the inter-provincial bridge study which will be considered by Council on February 11, 2009. Council needs to show leadership by coming to a decision on this file; its decision should be fair and in the best interest of the citizens of Ottawa.

I believe that the citizens of Ottawa need a transportation vision that keeps trucks away from established communities, improves public transportation, and delivers economic benefits.

Of all the east end options, the Kettle Island corridor will affect the health and safety of thousands of Ottawa residents and have the greatest social impact. Selecting the Kettle Island corridor will not solve the downtown truck problem – it will only repeat the mistakes of the King Edward corridor.

The Kettle Island option does not integrate into future land use plans on either side of the river nor does it link to public transit plans both current and future. There would be considerably greater economic benefits from options further down-stream, which would link the industrial sections of both sides.

I believe the position of the Province of Ontario in its letter to the NCC is correct and fair—the top three options need to be further reviewed, taking into account the important factors of impact on existing communities, encouragement of public transit usage, and stimulation of economic development.

I urge you to support the motion put forward by Jacques Legendre and Georges Bédard that Council support the provinces on the matter of the inter-provincial river crossing environmental assessment.

Regards,

(concerned citizen)
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Primary stakeholders have been neglected

I have sent the following letter to the NCC Board of Directors and to the City Councillors:
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RE: Interprovincial Crossings Project

Dear Elected Representatives and Decision Makers:

I’d like to begin by making one point very clear. The consultants have recommended Kettle Island as their technically preferred corridor. They have not recommended it as the corridor that best meets the overall needs of the National Capital Region.

When considering what’s best for the overall region, the citizens of the region must be considered as primary stakeholders. Their perspectives and concerns warrant the utmost consideration.

The consultants have gone through the motions of public consultation, but these have had little impact on the study. As part of the process, a quantitative survey was conducted across the National Capital Region on both sides of the river, in order to solicit public input on the relative importance of the major factors included in the analysis.

However, when the technical experts determined the weightings that would be applied, they virtually ignored the voice of the citizens. Here are the final rankings assigned by the technical experts in order of importance, with citizens’ ranking in brackets:

1. Traffic and Transportation (6)
2. Cost (7)
3. Natural Environment (1)
4. Cultural Environment (3)
5. Land Use and Property (4)
6. Socio Economic Environment (5)
7. Water Use and Resources (2)

The clear shift that the technical experts made was in the relative priority of Traffic and Cost factors. These factors shifted from the bottom of the list defined by the citizens to the top of the list. To emphasize this shift, the technical experts assigned a total weight of 54% to these two factors alone.

As a result of the assigned weightings, Kettle Island ranks first. But this is primarily due to its relatively high Traffic and Cost scores. Kettle Island ranks last of the twelve options considered for both Cultural Environment and Water Use – two of the top three factors identified by the citizens of the region.

Running the consultants’ decision-making model with the relative weights reflecting the ranking determined by citizens of the region places Kettle Island 9th.

The people have spoken, through the survey and throughout the public consultation process. The trouble is that the technical experts have not listened.

This is where you, the elected representatives and decision makers, must acknowledge the valid concerns of the primary stakeholders in this project. These primary stakeholders – the citizens of the National Capital Region – have been neglected.

You must balance the current technical recommendation with your greater obligation to these citizens.

I urge you to align with the position taken by the Ontario Government, and to further assess the top three options taking into greater account the impact on existing communities, encouragement of public transit usage, and stimulation of economic development.

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Ottawa City Council Meeting: Wednesday Feb 11th

Ottawa City Council meets on Wednesday, Feb. 11, to make a decision on the inter-provincial river crossing EA. The City’s decision will influence the NCC’s final decision on Feb 13th.

The meeting will be held at Andrew S. Haydon Hall beginning at 10:00 a.m. Attend if you can, and don’t forget your button.  Click here for the full agenda.

In advance of the meeting, please urge City Councillors to support the provinces in their recommendation for further study of the top three options with respect to impact on communities, economic benefit, and transit.  See the sample letter below for ideas on what to day.

Letters for distribution to all councillors can be sent to Dawn Whelan, 613-580-2424 ext. 21837, Dawn.Whelan@ottawa.ca.

The councilors who voted last time in favour of carrying two or three corridors forward were:

Marianne Wilkinson, Christine Leadman, Rick Chiarelli, Peggy Feltmate, Diane Holmes, Maria McRae, Diane Deans, Peter Hume, Glenn Brooks, Georges Bédard Jacques Legendre, and Clive Doucet.

It is time well spent to thank these councilors for this support.

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Sample Letter to City Councillors:

Dear Councillor,

I am writing regarding the issue of the inter-provincial bridge study which will be considered by Council on February 11, 2009. Council needs to show leadership by coming to a decision on this file, and its decision should be fair and in the best interest of the citizens of Ottawa.

I believe that the citizens of Ottawa need a transportation vision that keeps trucks away from established communities, improves public transportation, and delivers economic benefits.

The Kettle Island corridor will affect the health and safety of thousands of Ottawa residents and have the greatest social impact of all the east end options. Selecting Kettle Island will not solve the downtown truck problem – it will only repeat the mistakes of the King Edward corridor.

The Kettle Island option does not integrate into future land use plans on either side of the river, nor does it link to public transit plans both current and future. There would be considerably greater economic benefits from options further down-stream, which would link the industrial sections of both sides.

I believe the position of the Province of Ontario in its letter to the NCC is correct and fair—the top three options need to be further reviewed, taking into account the important factors of impact on existing communities, encouragement of public transit usage, and stimulation of economic development. I urge you to support the motion put forward by Jacques Legendre and Georges Bédard that Council support the provinces on the matter of the inter-provincial river crossing environmental assessment.
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Ottawa Council votes in favour of carrying forward a second corridor, but…

This morning, Ottawa City Council voted 12-11 in favour of carrying a second corridor forward for further study. However, Jan Harder (who opposes us) was absent. Because of this, and in view of the closeness of the vote, our opponents at Council were able to pass a subsequent motion to reconsider the issue in two weeks at the next Council meeting.

This is a very positive development and should give us traction with both the province and NCC commissioners. However, we have work to do in the next two weeks.

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Your attendance at the City Council meeting is important

Although we cannot speak, attendance at Wednesday’s council meeting is important. The meeting begins at 10:00a.m, Wednesday Jan. 14, at City Hall.

City Council will vote on the recommendation of the Transportation Committee to carry forward multiple sites.

Wear your buttons and show your support for the fight against the Kettle Island bridge! No signs allowed in the Council chamber.

And if you haven’t already done so, now would be a very good time to send comments to the City of Ottawa.  You can send an email directly to andrew.lomas@ottawa.ca and ask that your message be circulated to the mayor and to all councillors.

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