Councillors here remain opposed to a proposed Brantford to Cambridge transportation corridor.
On March 7, councillors endorsed a new resolution they had discussed at a previous council session. At that time, council wanted to view the resolution passed by the previous council – and include any new issues as required.
Mayor Dennis Lever noted that Puslinch had spoken previously about the provincial vision set out in the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) that the need for new urban development and infrastructure to serve increasing populations across the GGH must be balanced against the adverse effects and negative impacts such infrastructure can have on rural areas,
He stated council believes Puslinch “is precisely the kind of rural community the GGH Growth Plan is intended to protect.”
While council supports a new highway corridor for Highway 6 that improves the connection between Highway 403 and Highway 401, Lever said council believes the proposed environmental assessment is inconsistent with the Places to Grow legislation.
As a result, Puslinch objects to the present terms of reference issued by the Ministry of Transportation for the proposed Brantford to Cambridge Transportation Corridor individual environmental assessment based on the following reasons:
– while the assessment is called a Brantford-Cambridge corridor study, the Puslinch section includes lands in the study area kilometres east of Cambridge and cannot serve Cambridge;
– The GGH Growth Plan makes no provision for a transportation corridor connecting Brantford to Highway 401 through rural Puslinch;
– The GGH Growth Plan promotes a “transportation” corridor that could include alternative transit, when a corridor into rural Puslinch can only be about a new highway; and
– Any new transportation corridor through rural Puslinch will cause irreversible damage to the township’s natural and rural environment: it will cross and fragment prime agricultural lands and provincially significant wetlands, and will also cross and thus eventually contaminate the Paris-Galt Moraine in the township.
Council endorsed the new resolution.
