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Does Orléans need another bridge ask Blais and McNeely
scores the need for the city to both review all of its major road and under- ground infrastructure in the Orléans area and hasten upgrades to prevent a repeat of the incident. “The sinkhole, for some, has brought the issue forward,” said McNeely. “How we get 10,000 (DND) people moved?” The MPP has talked to his couter- part, Glengarry-Prescott-Russell MPP Grant Crack, and Clarence-Rockland Mayor Marcel Guibord about these concerns. He would like to see if the Federation of Canadian Municipali- ties would provide funding help for “a proper economic impact study” on the situation. “We’ve never had one done,”he said.
city to Kanata. He argued that doing so just means a longer commute through Orléans and across Ottawa for those DND civilian and military staff who live in the Orléans area and in communities like Rockland, Wendover and others further east. He also noted that all or any of those workers will continue to live in those ar- eas and not choose to relocate to Kanata
GREGG CHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
ORLEANS | Is this interprovincial bridge project really necessary is the question that the MPP for Ottawa- Orléans and the councillor for the Cumberland ward are asking in the latest public debate session over a proposed new crossing for the Ot- tawa River.
to be closer to their jobs. “It (DND jobs issue) is just going to gut the downtown and the east end of the city,” McNeely said. “We’re going to lose property values in Orlé- ans and in Clarence-Rock- land.” Both McNeely and Blais
Both Phil McNeely, MPP Ottawa- Orléans, and Coun. Stephen Blais, representing Ottawa’s Cumberland ward, stood up at a town hall meeting in Orléans Oct. 11 to put that question to close to 150 residents in an
“ If the funding is available to build a bridge, then the funding is available to build light rail transit to the Trim Road.” - Stephen Blais
Stephen Blais
are also concerned about the impact that increased traffic from a Kettle Island site for the proposed interprovincial bridge would have on both Highway 174 and Highway 417 in Orléans. Peak traffic esti- mates from the Gatineau side for such a connection tally at close to 2700 or more vehicle.s The recent sinkhole problem that closed part of Highway 174 for repairs under-
information and discussion session on the proposed new interprovincial bridge project that would provide another link between Gatineau on the Québec side of the Ottawa River and the Ottawa- Orléans area. Both have argued against Kettle Is- land in Orléans as one of the three pos- sible Ottawa sites for the bridge. “My position on this has been very clear,” said Blais during a phone inter- view following the town hall session. “If the funding is available to build a bridge, then the funding is available to build light rail transit to Trim Road.” McNeely has based his opposition to the interprovincial bridge proposal on his own experience and expertise in engi- neering. He has criticized the current re- port on the interprovincial bridge propos- al, and the suggested sites for the Ottawa end of it, as lacing enough specific detail on both design and impact on existing traffic patterns in the Orléans community and also for neighbouring communities east of Orléans. “This is serious business,” he said during a phone interview. “It’s serious business for Orléans and for Rockland too, and Wendover. None of the bridge sites are good for Orléans.” The MPP also noted that considering the Kettle Island site for an interprovincial bridge makes no sense now with the Con- servative federal government’s plan to relocate 10,000 Department of National Defence (DND) jobs from the downtown core suburb in Orléans west across the
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