Editorial — Nothing wrong with pressuring Province

February 4, 2016 · 0 Comments

We were a little disappointed in the way Peel Regional council decided last week to address the suspension of work on the GTA West Corridor environmental assessment (EA) study.
Caledon councillors, earlier in the week, passed motion asking Transportation Minister Steve Del Duca to resume and complete the study immediately.
We saw nothing wrong with that.
Yet some people at the Region weren’t too pleased with the tone. There were concerns that it put too much pressure on officials at Queen’s Park. They opted, instead, to ask for a meeting between the Minister and Regional Chair Frank Dale and the Mayors of Caledon, Brampton and Mississauga.
Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey was among those stressing the need for the tone to be respectful.
“We’re not in the driver’s seat,” she correctly observed.
Let us not forget that Jeffrey herself is a former Provincial cabinet minister, and thus has some idea on how things are run down at Queen’s Park and how well various different approaches are received there.
But let us also not forget that there is a lot riding on this study, and on the future of the Corridor. Land use planning issues are being held up, especially in Caledon, as well as in Brampton. Decisions at the municipal level are being delayed.
As well, long-range plans for individuals, families, farmers and business people are also on hold. The Corridor takes up a lot of land which figures every prominently in the lives of many people. Residents sit in their living rooms, wondering if the spot they’re sitting in is to one day become part of a super highway. Farmers already have enough trouble trying to make sure their operations are profitable. What is going to be the impact of this Corridor on their futures. They have a right to know.
We are not without sympathy over the task that is facing the Province. This involves some hard decisions that will have massive impacts on a lot of people, and influence municipal planning for years and decades to come.
Yes, these decisions are hard. But wasn’t the government elected to make those hard decisions? We don’t think it’s too much to ask the government to do it’s job.
Jeffrey and other councillors were right when they referred to the importance of tone and respect.
But with that in mind, what are all of us to think of a Provincial government that in December slammed the brakes on a process that it had started, and with very little in the way of explanation. Was that respectful? The people who were impacted by this decision deserved better.
Thus we think the Town was right to ask for the EA study to resume immediately. Failing that, there should be more details as to why it was suspended. If there was a good reason, then let’s hear it.
The people who are asking for all this are not nonentities asking pestering questions. They are also voters in this province, and taxpayers too.
They deserve better than what they’re getting.