By Doug Draper
Ding, dong, any plans for cutting a ‘mid-peninsula highway’ through the heart of Ontario’s Niagara region at long last seems dead.
Tyler Drygas, a senior environmental planner and URS consultant for Ontario's transportation ministry who is second to right in this photo and in the background, outlines transportation strategy for region with area residents. Photo by Doug Draper
At a public information session, hosted by Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation in Welland, Ontario this June 17, Roger Ward, a team leader in the ministry’s transportation planning branch, outlined to area residents in attendance the elements a strategy being developed for moving people and goods within and through Niagara and the Greater Toronto Corridor.
And here is the encouraging part. Not once, through Ward’s 15-minute presentation did he or any of his fellow ministry representatives make any reference to a ‘mid-peninsula highway’.
In fact, on the area of a map of the GTA and Niagara area where, for the better part of a decade, there was a fat line depicting where, generally, this new, multi-lane highway would go, there are now only the three words; “continue monitoring needs.”
What that phrase does, in the parlance of the ministry, is effectively put any plan to construct a new highway cutting from the Hamilton/Burlington area, and south of the Niagara Escarpment, through some of the nicest farming lands and forests and watersheds in the region, to the Queen Elizabeth Way and the U.S. border to Buffalo, is at the rock bottom of any transportation improvements now being considered.
Some may not like it, but for countless thousands of Niagara and Burlington area residents that have, for years, opposed this highway as a threat to the environment and as one more driver for ever more trucks and cars, the fact that this plan has been placed in a coma should come as good news. At an estimated cost of anywhere between $1- and $2 billion, and possibly even more, its virtual death should almost certainly be greeted as good news for the province’s taxpayers. So what is the ministry proposing in its latest ‘Draft Transportation Development Strategy’?
Essentially, the strategy focuses on ‘improving’ or ‘optimizing’ the use and performance of the existing transportation system, including the QEW and Hwy. 406. It includes building and encouraging the use of public transit, including marine and rail transportation, and buses which would, for example, receive special shoulder lanes on highways to bypass car and truck congestion.
Exploring policies for providing more support for local transit initiatives and promoting more car pooling to reduce the number of cars on our roads are among the other “priorities” in the mix for this redrafted strategy for transportation in the Niagara and GTA corridor. There are references to the possibility of more highway widening where necessary and to possibly constructing a highway link between the western stretch of the QEW running to the Peace Bridge and Highways 406 and 140.
That link, and were exactly it might go, is bound to be a topic of interest and concern to people living in the southern reaches of Niagara Falls and northern reaches of Fort Erie. But at least the construction of a mid-peninsula highway that would do irreparable damage to rural lands, including farming communities in the West Lincoln, Pelham and Welland areas has been shoved off the table of priorities.
Some of the credit for this must go to the current provincial government of Dalton McGuinty which (unlike the province’s former Conservative government that wanted to move full steam ahead with this highway plan) placed it under full environmental assessment. That move, made when McGuinty’s Liberals came to power more than six years ago, triggered a more comprehensive public review and, to the Ministry of Transportation’s credit, it worked to incorporate the concerns of the public, and that review has led us to here.
For more information on this transportation strategy for Niagara and the GTA, visit www.niagara-gta.com . On that site, you can navigate down the left side of the home page and find opportunities to contact the ministry and its consultants with your views on this strategy.
(Click on Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more stories on transportation and environment issues and for more news and commentary on other matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater binational Niagara region.) .
Niagara At Large 
Ok, but if we’re about to get our wish, is it what we wished to get?
Doesn’t this conflict with the Liberal’s Greenbelt policy?
Geographers have noted for years that ‘Development follows highways’. Won’t we lose more and more of the Niagara fruitbelt?
If the Liberals remain rigid on the Greenbelt, won’t that mean the end to more subdivisions in Niagara, and the building of more high-rises (think Niagara Falls)?
Denser populations mean higher crime rates & policing costs (discovered in studies from the 1920’s).
OTOH, denser populations also mean more affordable public transit (although still ignoring rural residents).
Will we be able to attract new industry (assuming that Niagara will ever again be able to compete in manufacturing), if we don’t have quick highway connections for just-in-time delivery? Won’t new industry want to locate along the QEW and avoid abandoned Welland and Port Colborne?
Hmmm. Never easy, is it?
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Doug Draper is to be congratulated not only for this fine article, but for his long and principled stand in opposition to this monstrous scheme. Since it is heavily favoured by the power elites in Niagara, I know myself from bitter experience all the flack one gets for taking such a position. Part of the reason both he and I care so much about this is that we were both involved in the successful campaign to save West Lincoln from a toxic waste incinerator. We did not want to save this farmland from one monster, and have it devoured by another.
Regarding the prospect of higher densities in Niagara this is not necessary to protect the Greenbelt. What is needed is to stop urban zoning expansions and have the growth concentrate in communities like Welland and Port Colborne, which have plenty of room within their urban boundaries. Developers supporing sprawl, aware of this reality, actually suggested downzoning these lands to agriculture to promote their selfish schemes.
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I was at the information meeting in Port Colborne last month,the 3 suggested routes from QEW to Welland were through miles of very sensative wet lands, I did notice I did not see one truck on route#3 either way on that highway so there does not appear to be a pressing need to spend 2 billion dollars on a new road.The Liberal Party’s stance on this idea is very similar to the Green Party’s approach to this Mid-Peninsular Highway project. Doug, we the people, won one this time
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This is great news. Wetlands contribute so much more to the tax base than industrial land.
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Hey Clint – even if you don’t care about the ecosystem itself, you could ask the people of New Orleans about the dollar value of wetlands.
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“…the 3 suggested routes from QEW to Welland were through miles of very sensative wet lands….”
Can someone remind me where the route would go? I can’t think of any wetlands along Netherby Road from QEW to Welland (aside from Frenchman’s Creek at the QEW?).
Does anyone know of an MTO website to see these routes?
Does anyone know which tender fruitlands will now be allowed to ‘Develop’ as the QEW is widened?
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“Hey Clint – even if you don’t care about the ecosystem itself, you could ask the people of New Orleans about the dollar value of wetlands.”
Hey Dennis – even if you don’t care about employment land itself, you could ask the people of South Niagara about the dollar value of wetlands.
“Can someone remind me where the route would go? I can’t think of any wetlands along Netherby Road from QEW to Welland (aside from Frenchman’s Creek at the QEW?). Does anyone know of an MTO website to see these routes?”
Lorne, this project is under the domain of Regional Niagara. I don’t believe that there is a web page about it at this point. There is indeed wetland in the area. The three preferred routes mostly snaked around it. Have a look at the NPCA website for wetland mapping.
“Does anyone know which tender fruitlands will now be allowed to ‘Develop’ as the QEW is widened?”
Under the Greenbelt Plan, it is difficult for the QEW to expand its land coverage. There is still a tremendous amount of space for additional lanes as it currently stands. Furthermore, under the Greenbelt, no existing agricultural land in the fruit belt can be used for non-agricultural purposes, unless it is within existing urban boundaries.
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Here’s a map from the NPCA, showing Niagara Region and the Welland River and Fort Erie watersheds:
http://www.npca.ca/water-management/water-planning/central-welland-river-watershed-plan.htm
It seems to me that a Mid-Peninsula Highway could generally be built along the areas Above the watersheds, so as not to damage any wetlands or obstruct flood plains.
In fact, the Fort Erie NASCAR will cause substantially more damage to wetlands, as has already been noted elsewhere.
We’ve got to do a LOT of re-thinking as to how we want to destroy our corner of paradise – Niagara. There’s hardly a corner of it that resembles the ecology before the Loyalists moved to Upper Canada (Ontario) and drained the Eagle Marsh and Beaverdams, to name only two. (Imagine, eagles and beavers used to live here!)
In fact, someone pointed out to me that almost every place that we see as a Conservation Area in Niagara, is the remnant of a former industrial site:
– the former Canada Cement lands in Port Colborne & Wainfleet;
– Big Mud Lake & Lake Gibson & many other remains from building several Welland Canals; – parts of the Niagara Parkway;
– residential Effingham, St.Johns, etc. were once the water-powered industrial capital of Upper Canada; ‘
– Tecumseh Park’ in NOTL.
“…unless it is within existing urban boundaries.”
Isn’t that the point Clint? We’ll need to build UP. But only if we have Jobs for people to live here!
Niagara Falls NY used to have 150,000 people before Love Canal, and most of their chemical factories moved out. Now they have 40,000.
Niagara was de-industrialised when Ontario built CANDU nuclear reactors and equalised the power grid. This drove out most of our heavy industry that had located here for cheap hydro from Niagara Falls. How do we replace those jobs?
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I congratulate Doug on taking a strong, principled stance on this issue. We do not need another highway for yet more cars to go more places that people that cannot drive cannot get to. In addition to this, protecting the environment is high in MY priority list … particularly since I had to move from one automobile-based neighbourhood to a quieter one to find more breathable air.
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One of the 1st routes was Bowen Road veering off towards Netherby Road, #2 was Netherby Road close to where I live, this whole area had been classified as flood plain bt the NPCA until we fought like heck to get it changed to one in one hundred year storm,it went to Queen Park to change this designation, the other route was White Pigeon, and believe me that was all wet land. hope this helps you folks
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