Taking GO politics to a microscopic level
It seems we’ve been talking about Niagara GO train service forever.
At other times, though, it’s like the discussion started yesterday.
Take, for example, the issue of the preferred GO station site in St. Catharines.
That’s an issue, you ask? Well, not really. But bear with me.
The Western Hill train station has been around for a hundred years in one form or another. It’s relatively close to the downtown, and, as such, has always been seen by the city’s deep thinkers as a potential driver of economic growth in the core, a view considerably buttressed with the pending arrival of GO.
In 2011, the province completed an environmental assessment of the rail transit system coming to Niagara. Part of the study related to the siting of train stations. It looked at several locations, but identified as the preferred option, for a variety of reasons and to the surprise of no one, the existing Western Hill site.
Five years later, after the province announced GO trains would be coming to Niagara, the Region conducted its own station study and supported the earlier environmental assessment’s findings.
The Region’s report, which explains the recommendation in detail, was included on the Dec. 5, 2016, city council agenda.
There was nary a peep of protest over the report that night. Then again, why should there have been? It’s what everyone expected.
Fast forward to this week at council when three top Metrolinx officials provided an update on the GO Niagara extension.
Come question time, Coun. Joe Kushner, whose ward includes the train station, rose.
“One of the recurring questions I have is why did you pick that site? Why did you not go further west where there’s more land available and less potential for conflict with the neighbourhood?”
Huh?
Once again, it’s difficult to know whether Kushner is asleep at the switch or merely being politically wily.
Kushner, who has been on council since the War of 1812, knows how to play to an audience. In this instance, there are residents of the long-established neighbhourhood surrounding the station who are concerned that increased passenger train activity may create parking and traffic problems in the area.
Thus, we have Kushner gravely questioning Metrolinx’s site-selection wisdom at Monday’s televised council meeting. As opposed to, say, telling these concerned residents he was part of a municipal council that had no problem with the site selection, and then directing them to the various studies that explained the decision.
At any rate, it was all for show. Kushner’s late-in-the-game potstirring seemed to gobsmack the Metrolinx officials in attendance, though. Indeed, project planning director Brian Gallaugher felt compelled to advise city council and the community at-large “not to hold out a great deal of hope” that the proposed Western Hill site for the new St. Catharines GO station will change.
Trust me, Brian, no one is holding out hope for that. It’s local politics at a microscopic level, man.
Truth be told, it’s the city and Niagara Region that are responsible for any angst the neighbourhood residents may be feeling about future road congestion.
They’re the ones that have been relentlessly hyping the arrival of GO as the greatest thing to hit the city since vegan donuts. They’ve hosted a couple of meetings related to the development of a secondary plan for the area, sessions that have suggested development and growth will surely take place after GO rail service comes here, given the untold scads of people who will want to use it.
Ridership is pure conjecture at this point and residents have been assured the existing neighbourhood will be protected from invasive new development. Still, you can understand why there might be some trepidation among residents.
But that’s a worry better addressed to the city and the Region, bodies that would be responsible for ensuring reasonable traffic flow and proper parking measures.
And they’ve got at least six years before the service arrives.
We can only hope our municipal politicians won’t be asleep at the switch throughout this period. dherod.niagara@gmail.com