Bump-up
Request Cover Letter
Bump-up Request Document
News Release
Community Coalition Escalates Smart Growth Appeal To Province
Ottawa, December 12, 2005. An Ottawa environmental super group today appealed to Ontario's Minister of Environment to help stop the Alta Vista Transportation Corridor (AVTC) road project.
A coalition of green and community groups such as the Sierra Club, Transport 2000, and Citizens for Healthy Communities has asked the province to reject the recently-completed AVTC environmental assessment (EA) recommending a four-lane road from Walkley to the Queensway. The group wants to see the 'class' EA bumped up to an 'individual' EA that would let a transit-only option be considered.
"The EA as it stands does a disservice to smart growth in Ottawa by recommending an unnecessary and exorbitant road that the public largely does not want," says Carol Gudz of the Sierra Club of Canada.
The appeal comes days after the Ottawa Smart Growth Group released their report Balancing the Budget with Smart Growth. The report identifies the top 10 road projects that need to be halted if the City wants to avoid a huge capital reserve deficit by 2008. Ottawa's per-household road annual cost is $275, one of the highest in the country and on the rise.
This fall Ottawa City Council neither approved nor rejected the EA, only "received" it on the basis that only the Hospital Link road between Riverside Drive and the hospital complex be built for now.
The coalition is asking that the class EA be rejected and an individual EA be carried out for the Hospital Link section so that a transit-only option can be considered.
"Besides being the wrong type of EA for the project, the entire four-year process was seriously flawed," says Heather Jarrett of Citizens for Healthy Communities. "It wasn't harmonized with related development studies, public opinion was never taken into account, and the role of the consultant was disproportionately large. Quite simply, it was biased towards a road from the outset."
The group sent the report to the Ontario Minister of Environment on December 4, copying Premier McGuinty, , Minister of Health Promotion Jim Watson, Mayor Chiarelli, city staff, and other interested parties.
For further information:
On bump-up request: Heather Jarrett, Citizens for Healthy Communities, 594-0182, or Jon Legg, Citizens for Healthy Communities, 789-6395
On Balancing the Budget with Smart Growth: Councillor Clive Doucet, 580-2487