March 9, 2010 Update: East End Communities (no longer) being disenfranchised by PACEs Public Consultation process

Some good news: we raised our Feb 12 concern at the NCC/PACEs February Public Consultation group meeting. After the meeting, we also tabled a document that outlined some general concerns with respect to a Productive and Collaborative Consultation. With the help of some additional written support from our local elected reps, Phil McNeely and Bob Monette to name two of them, I'm happy to report two things:

1. The East end as a whole will have their own consultation meeting with the NCC/PACE. So it's not just strictly adjacent communities. This hasn't been announced formally by PACE yet - but we are confident it will happen shortly. Details to follow.
2. Common Sense Crossings will co-host with PACE a pilot Community Consultation session with folks directly adjacent to the Option 7 corridor in late March. Details to follow.

Thanks also to PACE and the NCC for being flexible in their goal of community consultation. If you're looking for the offical NCC version of bridge consultation related material - the best place to go is here: http://www.ncrcrossings.ca

 

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Feb 12 - Today Common Sense Crossings sent a letter of protest to Marie Lemay, CEO of the NCC, to protest the exclusion of our group, and other East End community organizations from PACEs consultation process. There's two underlying issues here that are important to understand:

• PACE is trying to limit participation in the consultation process to communities within the proposed bridge corridors. Doing this will exclude active community associations across the East End, lovers and users of the Greenbelt, and thousands of commuters who will doubtless be affected by EA factors like rerouting the Rockcliffe Parkway and rebuilding the overpass, disruption of the dedicated OC Transpo bus lanes, and the increased traffic between the split and the proposed Option 6/7 cloverleaf.

• PACE says that CSC is not a 'community group' even though our current membership is heavily Convent Glen North based.  This leaves Convent Glen North out in the cold - since there's no active community association in the neighborhood. Using PACEs rationale - Convent Glen North - where Option 7 practically routes through people's backyards - gets excluded from the public consultation process. Obviously, this is an outrage!

You can see the full text of our letter here - but I encourage our elected representatives and representatives of all community groups to rally together and protest this disenfranchisement of the entire East End in the name of "public consultation". Please write Madame Lemay and ensure your voices are heard.

 

Feb 3, 2010  How the EA process is like a runaway train

No matter where you live - no matter which of the current 3 corridors interest you - there are lots of reasons to be worried about the EA process, and any potential outcomes at the end of the process.

For starters, an EA (environmental assessment) is not the proper tool to use in making a decision about where to put the next interprovincial bridge - an EA will not solve a political problem and that is exactly what the bridge has become.  As soon as the NCC (at the request of Ontario and Quebec) expanded the corridors to 3, they reopened the political debate - and the EA doesn't have the capability to resolve it. Here's why:

• The tool is constrained by the Act to only look at a very narrow band of factors, and does not address such things as true cost-benefit and the community concerns regarding health, safety, neighborhood impact, Greenbelt impact or traffic (direct and secondary).
• At a recent Public Consultation Group meeting on the EA process, there was no support for any of the 3 proposed options yet the consultants are limited by their Terms of Reference to only considering these three options. This exclude any other potentially more cost effective and acceptable solutions, like a tunnel under the Market.
• Our greatest fear is that this bridge is being built by process and will only end up doing the wrong thing in the right way.
• In fact - the EA announcement documents show the NCC might be doing the wrong thing in the wrong way, by suggesting that a screening EA (lightweight) happen instead of a panel review. We say: if it was important enough to add 2 additional corridors to the EA process - citizens deserve a full panel review, where concerns are responded to as well.

Call for leadership: A holistic transportation plan is much more than a bridge

Without an integrated overall NCR (National Capital Region) plan that includes all of the pieces, there is again a real risk of one part making a decision in isolation, with negative and costly ramifications to others. Here's what this means in practical terms - we need an integrated holistic transportation plan - not a solution to a single issue truck problem.

• Ottawa and Gatineau mass transit planning (LRT, tunnel, interprovincial links, completion of Highway 50 in Quebec) needs to be factored into the need and priority for any bridge.
• Several supporting studies, currently underway, need to be completed first in order to determine the appropriate prioritizing and timing of any bridge, such as the Truck Origin and Destination study (to be completed 2012) - moving forward with a bridge decision without this information is akin to putting the cart before the horse.
• We need political leaders to get back into this debate - not pitting neighbourhood against neighbourhood - but proposing a holistic long term plan that crosses governmental boundaries and deals with the NCRs current problems.

The NCC: Running madly off in all directions

Here's why the NCC (Natioinal Capital Commission) is looking fractured and appears to be moving in contradictory directions at the same time.

• In carrying out the Greenbelt Master Plan review, the NCC has clearly acknowledged that there are fragile and valuable parts of the Greenbelt, such as Green's Creek, that should be established as conservation areas and be protected.
• However, at the same time, the NCC is moving forward with an EA assessment of 2 options that put the bridge directly at Green's Creek - this will destroy the eastern part of the Green belt.
• Without an integrated approach that respects the Greenbelt Master Plan Review and takes into account all of the other planning activities underway, there cannot be an integrated vision for the NCR and this is sorely needed. I believe that the role of the NCC is to exercise leadership in this area.
• 60 years ago Jacques Greber created a long term vision for the NCR and Greenbelt.  It is time for the NCC to take leadership and create a plan with a vision for the next 60 years.

Today, there is little citizen support to make a bridge the highest infrastructure priority given the financial pressures faced by all 3 levels of government and other initiatives at play.

• On the Ottawa side we are certain that other priorities would be put before a bridge, including light rail, a downtown tunnel, completion of the Blackburn Hamlet Bypass to enable public transit to reach the newly announced Health Hub, fixing of the 174/417 split to name just a few.
• Are we wasting money?  The EA cost was raised by a factor of 3 when Options 6 & 7 were added to the study.  If a bridge is not going to proceed at this time, why not stop spending in this area and put the funds to better use.

A Call to Arms: Help spread the message

If you're a citizen: It's time to get your pens and paper out - and contact your elected reps. This should be a mayoral issue, a city council issue, a provincial issue and a federal issue. At the very least, fill in this NCC Survey on the  Future of the Greenbelt (before Feb 19th), and let the NCC know that the Greenbelt should not be used as a transportation corridor. If you're a political leader - it's time to get back in the driver's seat of this runaway train, before we end up with a bridge that fractures communities and spends a billion dollars in one fell swoop.

Feb 2, 2010 -  NCC sneaks out EA Notice of Commencement on January 19, well before "Future of Greenbelt" consultation!

We all know that the NCC is an organization with many heads. Cynics might call it a many headed beast! On one hand, they are responsible for the Greenbelt and Gatineau Park and have a fair number of environmentally concerned folks working for them. On the other hand, they own and operate all the Interprovincial Bridges, and have a whack of transportation engineers itching to build stuff - even if it's based on 20 year old studies. Damn the Greenbelt, full speed ahead! Even taking this into account - can there be any excuse for the NCC publishing the EA "Notice of Commencement" for the Interprovincial Bridge project on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency's website back on Jan 19, and having NO MENTION of it at the so-called "public consultations" that took place on the Future of the Greenbelt one week later. I feel like the public is getting short shifted on this one.

Jan 27 , 2010 -   Orleans Online article: East end residents raise concerns, not placards during NCC Greenbelt consultations

Jan 22, 2010 - NCC East End Consultations on Future of Greenbelt Vision are Tuesday, Jan 26t

 

Back in the fall, a number of CSC members attended a 2 day closed door Greenbelt Visioning session, to try and help the NCC update the vision of the Greenbelt for the next 50 years. We heard from bioligists about the sensitivity of the Green's Creek area and the destruction that a bridge corridor would bring to the already thinnest area of the Greenbelt. We also heard about how Soeul and Sydney allowed their Greenbelts to be destroyed when short sighted planners allowed encroachment and development within their Greenbelt boundaries. Representatives from London and Fort Collins, Colorado talked about the political support that has allowed them to preserve and expand their greenspace.

Now the NCC is holding a couple of public consultations on the Greenbelt vision - Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next. Please attend and let the NCC know that it makes no sense to pave paradise and put up a parking lot.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Between 5pm and 8pm
Ecole secondaire publique Louis-Riel
1655 Bearbrook Road, Ottawa, Ontario

Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Between 5pm and 8pm
Nepean Sportsplex Hall A
1701 Woodroffe Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario

Thursday, January 28, 2010
Between 5pm and 8pm
National Capital Commission, room 323
40, Elgin Street, Ottawa, Ontario

 

Update: December 29, 2009

The second phase (2A) of the Environmental Assessment of the 3 proposed interprovincial bridge options has begun and things are moving quickly!

• This phase will be completed by June of 2010 and it is vital that your thoughts and concerns on the proposed bridge options are voiced at the upcoming public consultation sessions.
• The report at the end of Phase 2A, June 2010, will define the criteria and guiding values to be used to select the one option for the bridge and lay out a consultation strategy for Phase 2B.

A sustained effort will be required by us all, particularly over the next few months, to ensure that the full impact of these two Bridge Options is understood.

Highlights of the December 15, 2009 meeting of the Public Consulting Group (PCG) [1]

1. Meeting chaired by Patrick Deoux of Aecom-Delcan. NCC staff also in attendance.
2. Based on a review by the consultants of all public submissions and letters to date, they concluded there was dissatisfaction with the Phase 1 process that had been followed and concern about the weighting of criteria. This was not discussed.
3. There will be different types of consultation activities held between January and May. The Open House format used in Phase 1 will not be repeated. The approach will be a workshop format with round table discussions to maximize participant input.
4. The main "community consultation" will take place through 10 community group meetings, from February to April.
5. Identification of these groups has not yet been done. It is important for you to participate in these meetings. Contact us, your community association and/or city councilor to let them know you want to be involved.
6. Notice of all public consultation meetings will be communicated through the NCC web page and local newspapers as well on the CSC website.
7. The Federal CEAA was said to be the primary legislation guiding the process. Apparently the Ontario EA standards would not apply and it is not clear whether Quebec’s EA process will apply. The consultant said that the EA will be a “Screening process” rather than a full Panel review. According to the CEAA, a "Panel" is used for large projects where there is significant public dissent and high public interest. There remains a possibility that a panel may be necessary in light of strong community resistance to all 3 options.
8. There were many comments raised by the attendees indicating lack of support for any one of the current 3 bridge options and the desire to look at others. Unfortunately the mandate for phase 2A has been set and limits the consultants’ scope of work to options 5, 6 & 7.[2]

Significant dates:

• January: Phase 2A begins
• January to March and March to June:
• 2 sub-phases of Community Consultations, with 5 Community consultation sessions to be held in each sub-phase.
• April: Refined evaluation factors
• April to June: Development of 2B Engagement plan and completion of the methodology for 2B
• June – final report with criteria to be used in 2B and engagement plan for 2B laid out.

What Can You Do?

• View the Common Sense Crossings web site to understand the issues and threats better
• Attend the meeting CSC will hold early in the New Year to discuss the issues and prepare for the Community Consultations.
• Spread the word to neighbors, friends & colleagues to raise awareness about what is going on. Ask them to join you and become part of Common Sense Crossings.
• Contact your Community Association and/or city councilors to express your viewpoint.
• Write to local newspapers about your concerns about the 2 Greenbelt options.
• Stay informed: monitor the NCC www.ncc-ccn.ca and the CSC www.commonsensecrossings.com sites and newspapers

[1] There are several other advisory groups that have been set up, including the PCG, First Nations, Technical Advisory, Community Consultation and Communication.

[2] Option 5: Kettle Island; Option 6: Lower Duck (Greenbelt option 1): Option 7: Gatineau Airport (Greenbelt option 7)
See CSC website for maps.