Parkway opponents applaud Ballard’s decision

A citizens’ no-Parkway coalition says it applauds the provincial environment minister’s refusal to allow the city to extend the road without first doing a fresh environmental assessment.

This week, Environment and Climate Change Minister Chris Ballard met with Mayor Daryl Bennett over council’s plan to extend The Parkway.

Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Jeff Leal was also there (as the MPP for Peterborough).

Bennett wanted Ballard to consider allowing the city to start extending The Parkway to the north and south, regardless of a provincial order issued in 2016 for a more-detailed environmental assessment.

But Ballard said no. He still wants the city to do more study.

The Peterborough Greenspace Coalition (PGC) stated Friday it’s happy with that decision.

“The PGC applauds the minister’s insistence that the original order be followed, and believes that it is past time, after seven decades, to move beyond The Parkway,” reads part of a written statement from the coalition.

A north-south road allowance has been set aside for The Parkway since 1942. Seventy-five years later, the road is still not built.

For years, the road allowance has been a recreational trail – and many people don’t want it paved over.

Yet some citizens and councillors have argued that traffic congestion is building across Peterborough – particularly in the north end. Council voted in 2013 to finally build The Parkway as a way to alleviate that congestion.

Many people weren’t happy: 88 appeals were filed to the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, asking that the city be forced to do another environmental study first.

The Peterborough Greenspace Coalition filed one of those appeals and it stated on Friday that the city should finally abandon any idea of extending The Parkway.

The coalition urges council to take a serious look at other traffic solutions instead, such as transit, cycling and walking.

“PCG continues to advocate that less expensive and simpler solutions be explored and implemented immediately before spending another cent on studies for the misguided and problematic Parkway project,” the statement says.

Bennett spoke to Premier Kathleen Wynne about The Parkway when she was last in Peterborough in August.

He said she told him to come meet with her and Ballard at Queen’s Park, at some later time, to talk about it further.

In October, council voted 6-5 to allow Bennett to arrange appointments with both Ballard and Wynne to ask whether they’d allow the city to circumvent the order for a more-detailed EA and start extending The Parkway.

If the road were extended, there would be no bridge taking traffic over Jackson Park: that part of the plan was removed by council in October.

Bennett said on Wednesday he still wants to meet with Wynne, and has asked for an appointment.

On Friday, a spokesperson in Wynne’s office stated that the premier’s policy advisor for municipal affairs was at the meeting with Bennett, Ballard and Leal, and that person would be speaking with Ballard “about next steps.”

There was no mention of whether an appointment may be granted.