An environmental lobby group is pressing Ottawa city council to cancel the extension
of Terry Fox Drive
through a sensitive wetland habitat.
John Bennett, executive director of Sierra Club Canada, said
his group will ask the provincial and municipal governments to cancel the
four-kilometre $48-million road project.
He said the project threatens the Blanding’s turtle, and
other species inhabiting the wetland.
“They’re going to destroy the habitat of an endangered
species,” said Bennett. “We’re losing wetlands at an unbelievable rate.”
The city is pushing forward with the project a decade ahead
of schedule, said Bennett, using $32 million in federal stimulus money
available only until March 31, 2011 – forcing the city to fast track
construction.
“This was slated to happen 10 years from now,” said Bennett.
“The only reason we’re going ahead now without a closer look at the
environmental assessment is because the federal government made easy money
available.
“This is about development,” he said. “This is about building
houses – it’s not about servicing the local community.”
If the Sierra Club is looking to contest the road project,
Briarbrook Morgan’s Grant Community Association president Matt Muirhead
promises he won’t turtle.
“If he wants to pick a fight I’d say he picked the wrong
guy,” said Muirhead.
Muirhead said he plans to call a special meeting of his
community association to answer the objections of the Sierra Club.
“If he’s going to launch a national campaign we’re going to
have a very local targeted campaign,” said Muirhead.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that road is built,
that is for certain.”
The Terry Fox extension
will provide a much-needed connection between Morgan’s Grant and Kanata Lakes,
said Muirhead.
“All of Kanata north has an interest in seeing Terry
Fox built,” said Muirhead.
The extension will pull
traffic away from neighbourhood streets – motorists attempting to avoid traffic
jams on March Road, he said.
It will also divert
motorists from Goulbourn Forced
Road, Muirhead added.
“It’s not safe,” he said,
about Goulbourn Forced. “My loyalty, my caring is about human life first.”
Goulbourn Forced is a
temporary narrow road, often pockmarked with potholes, presenting a danger to
motorists, said Muirhead.
Bennett said homeowners in
Morgan’s Grant should have known they were moving into a rural area with
sensitive wetlands.
URBAN VS. RURAL
“They moved into that area
as a rural area with rural roads,” he said. “If they’re expecting urban
services and transportation they should move into an urban area.”
But Morgan’s Grant falls
within the urban boundary, said Kanata North Coun. Marianne Wilkinson, and
plans to extend Terry Fox have been in place since the late 1970s.
“They are in an urban area
– Morgan’s Grant is an urban area,” she said. “He doesn’t know our area.”
Terry Fox will extend
along the urban boundary, she added.
The provincial government
has already given the go-ahead for the first phase of the project, which was
slated to start this week, and the city expects final approval for the second
phase soon.
“There’s been many opportunities
to comment on this road,” said Wilkinson. “There’s been many public open houses
and they’ve never come.”
The city will install
barriers along the border of the road, including fences and culverts, providing
an underground crossing for turtles.
“They say they’re going to
wander on the road,” said Wilkinson.
“They’re not going to
wander on the road, because they’re putting barriers up.”
The project has undergone
three environmental assessments, including a federal one, a condition attached
to the federal stimulus money.
LAWSUIT
Bennett said he has
written letters to the Ontario
ministers of Environment and Natural Resources, pointing to the need for more
study on the project’s impact on the Blanding’s turtle and other indigenous
species.
“Why do human needs always
come first?” asked Bennett. “There’s lots of places to build houses in Ottawa.”
The Sierra Club has also
filed a lawsuit against the federal government, arguing that changes made to
the federal Environmental Assessment Act made to accommodate stimulus funding
fast track environmental studies.
“We warned them there was
the potential for environmental tragedies,” said Bennett. “This is one
of them.”
blair.edwards@metroland.com