Terry Fox Tunnel Has Life Of It Own: MULVIHILL

Kanata North Councillor Cathy Curry has entered the $28-million Terry Fox Tunnel controversy.

The tunnel was initially approved in the 1990s when Kanata North formed part of the City of Kanata and Marianne Wilkinson was councillor. It has suddenly sprung to life albeit much to the surprise of Curry who had never heard of it and didn’t really see the need for the tunnel. Fast forward a few weeks and Curry, having met with staff, suddenly sees the light at the end of the tunnel.

“The traffic engineers, who plan out for 30-50 years, have modelled the traffic flow past and future and tell us that it will help significantly with the bus routes and to alleviate traffic on Terry Fox Drive and other nearby roads … OC Transpo will send a high number of buses that way – more when there is LRT there, too.”

Interestingly OC Transpo will send a high number of buses that way because, according to transit users, buses are currently few. However, there will supposedly be more buses when LRT hits Kanata North. This despite the fact OC Transpo has cut 75,000 hours of bus service.

It has now been about three decades and suddenly the need to spend a minimum of $28 million is urgently needed to divert traffic so buses can move more quickly through this suburb. Seriously? Where are these buses coming from? The city is already short of buses and it isn’t likely that diverting R1 or R2 buses is the plan. Perhaps OC Transpo can update transit users?

According to Wilkinson, “It may not be as crucial as we originally thought it would be, but there are certain times of the year when that road becomes almost unpassable. And whenever there’s an accident, it’s really bad.”

This just in. Whenever there’s an accident any road becomes impassable. That end of Terry Fox Drive is hardly traffic heavy and March Road is massively wide. Can they be busy? Sure but definitely not tunnel worthy and certainly not at this point. Wilkinson’s response is hardly warranted. The most-travelled part of March Road is between Herzberg Road and Highway 417 … a far cry from Terry Fox Drive.

The catch here is that funds for the tunnel were collected via development charges when the Kanata Centrum was built in 1981, held in trust, and can only be used for that specific purpose. It’s been 35 years and suddenly this is of the utmost urgency. Spending at least $28 million seems suddenly vital.

So, the tunnel lives on in perpetuity similar to the Kanata Lakes Golf Course and we all know what happened on that front.

Donna Mulvihill is a community activist and former hospital coordinator.

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