Mayoral candidate’s support for the Parkway disappointing

Jackson Park boosters say city has other priorities

Friends of Jackson Park is deeply disappointed and dismayed that candidate for mayor Henry Clarke is still advocating to build the Parkway.

This relic of 1950s-era transportation planning has been rejected outright by the majority of residents time and again.

That’s because this monstrosity would cost hundreds of millions (if not up to $1 billion in the end) to construct, take up to 20 years to complete, will cut through family neighbourhoods, destroy a popular green space trail, put us at increased risk of flooding and extreme heat, put a massive bridge through the heart of Jackson Park and destroy its rare, old growth trees, and create untold greenhouse gas emissions in its construction and existence.

The benefit? Vehicles would save 1 minute and 40 seconds of driving time.

To imply that viable alternative transportation plans for Peterborough don’t exist is misleading, irresponsible, and indicative of a proParkway bias.

In fact, Peterborough’s brand new Transportation Master Plan and Official Plan — both informed by unprecedented amounts of public input — do not include the Parkway at all.

Instead, the city plans to better utilize a ring-road approach for connecting north and south via Brealey, Ackison, Lily Lake, and Television Roads and the 115 bypass.

This is eminently logical, way less expensive and less environmentally destructive, and requires fewer intersections and stop lights along the route.

Eliminating the Parkway from the city’s planning was long overdue and is supported by the vast majority of Peterborough residents. In the last municipal election, 70 per cent of voters chose the “No Parkway” mayoral candidate.

Every time residents are asked about planning, the results show clearly that we want our parks, green space and natural heritage protected because it is exactly these natural assets that make Peterborough stand out as a desirable place to live and work.

Peterborough is a small-sized city where 77 per cent of all trips by residents are under 5 kilometres. We can and should lower the speed limit on residential streets, implement more traffic calming and active transportation, develop a more functional and affordable public transit system, and better utilize technological tools like smart signals.

Peterborough, like every city, is confronting the urgent need to make our city more resilient to the impacts of climate change, including extreme heat, freeze-thaw cycles in the winter, damaging winds, flooding, and invasive species. These climate impacts threaten our infrastructure, our businesses, our health and safety, and are costly to respond to.

Recall that this summer airport tarmacs in the U.K. melted from extreme heat, and the London Fire Brigade experienced its busiest day since the Second World War — all the result of just one day above 40 C. Last summer, 619 people died in B.C.’s heat wave.

Clarke says he will “promote decision-making to achieve a 45 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030.” But to meaningfully reduce our emissions just seven years from now requires transformational change, and simply put, building the Parkway stands in extreme contradiction to any climate-resilience and would be a tragic waste of City Hall’s limited staff resources and taxpayer money.

Peterborough has more important and worthy spending priorities — like protecting our drinking water quality, enhancing our stormwater infrastructure, addressing housing and homelessness, upgrading and greening our downtown for businesses and tourism, and carrying out stewardship of our valuable natural heritage like our urban tree canopy, Jackson Creek, Jackson Park, Byersville Creek, the Harper Wetland, and more.

Tell your council candidates you oppose reviving the Parkway issue, that Jackson Park and the parkway trail should be protected permanently as green space, and then be sure to vote that way, too.

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