City staff says no to $80M 'gift' to widen Hwy. 174
Jake Rupert
The Ottawa Citizen
Monday, April 14, 2008
OTTAWA - The city's transportation planning staff are recommending the municipality say no to federal and provincial government offers of $40 million each to widen Highway 174 from Trim Road in Orleans to Rockland.
A staff report on the issue says the proposed 22-kilometre freeway isn't needed and will encourage sprawl. It adds that a commuter-rail line could service the area, and the city doesn't have the $15-million share the province wants it to pay.
It recommends the city refuse to even accept a grant of $5 million being offered by the province to do the preliminary studies on the road widening, which would include about seven kilometres inside the city's boundaries.
The recommendation is scheduled to be debated by councillors on the city's transportation committee Wednesday, and the mayor of Clarence-Rockland Richard Lalonde is flabbergasted.
"This is an $80-million gift, and they should be jumping on it," he said. "I can't understand why they won't participate."
In the report, city staff say the municipality should reject the road for a number of reasons. They say the city can't afford it, city plans don't call for a widening of the road until after 2021 at the earliest because there isn't a need, it goes against the goal of creating a more compact city, and that there are many much cheaper ways to make the road safer, if that is a concern.
Furthermore, they say several eastern Ontario municipalities, led by the city, are looking at establishing a commuter-rail system that could run directly from Rockland to the Ottawa Via station where riders could transfer to the city's transit system.
The report says the proposed road would have little value to the city and that the municipality has many other, more important infrastructure projects it can't do already due to a lack of funds. And it lists several other reasons not to build the road.
"A widened freeway in the rural area could also encourage sprawl and out-migration to surrounding municipalities, which is not in line with the city's smart-growth principles," the report says. "(The money) could be put to better use."
These words both stunned and pleased Capital Council Clive Doucet who has been saying in vain for years that governments have to stop building roads and focus on transit. He said this is the first evidence city planners are beginning to understand that the way the municipality has been allowed to grow is not sustainable and if it continues, it will collapse financially and environmentally.
"It sounds like sanity is finally starting to prevail in this city for the first time in two years," Mr. Doucet said. "I've never seen this city contemplate refusing money for a road. This is the first proof that maybe we are moving in the right direction. Maybe."
Cumberland Councillor Rob Jellett whose ward the road would run through supports the city staff position. He said the proposed road would have so little benefit for the city, he cannot support it. He said he'd have no problem with the province doing the study itself, and, if it showed a reasonable plan for a road expansion, he might support it.
But he said no city money should be put to any aspect of the project.
"The demand for this is coming from outside the city, not in the city," he said. "This is just not something we would do."
People in the areas east of Ottawa have been pushing for the road widening for years.
During the last provincial election, the Ontario Liberals announced $40 million for the project, and said it would go ahead if the federal government would contribute $40 million, which it did, the city $15 million and Prescott-Russell County $9 million.
Under the provincial plan, the city was supposed to administer the project.
Mr. Lalonde said 70 per cent of people living in Rockland commute to Ottawa each day to work, and that a wider connection to the city would help economic development in his area. He said that with city support doubtful, his municipality is prepared to take the lead on the project.
He said his government is prepared to take the $5 million provincial study grant, do the work, and then when it's done in a couple years, consult with the city on how to proceed.
Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien met with Mr. Lalonde and other municipal leaders from the area east of Ottawa and provincial and federal representatives to discuss the issue Monday afternoon. Members of his office said he had not taken a position on the issue yet, but would do so after the meeting and consultation with city staff that recommend against the road.
Following the meeting, Glengarry-Prescott-Russell Liberal MPP Jean-Marc Lalonde said he will be pressing for the province to take over the necessary studies for the widening, but if that doesn't work, he's content to have the county take the lead. Members of the county council at the meeting said they are interested in doing so, and the matter will go to a vote at the county level next week.
The MPP also stressed that any study will take into account and suggest fixes for the chronic traffic bottleneck at Highway 417 and city road 174.
Mr. Jellett and other east-end Ottawa councillors were at the meeting. He said the city's position hadn't changed.
"Our position is that this is not needed in the short-term, but if the province or the county wants to do this study we will provide information and cooperate and see what they come up with," he said. "But we aren't prepared to put any more in because we don't think this is needed."
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
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I think the federal government should have a Public-Private partnership competition to determine the location of the next bridge. The competition will include 9 different cities. We mustn't make it look like we are playing favourites to Ottawa. 
My parents live near this highway. I have been on it at rush hour and the traffic flow is fine...moving full steam ahead. If they want to build roads (which I am not advocating in general), there are considerably more worthy locations to add lanes....
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