Regional Transportation Policy Recommendation

The Chamber comments on a recent Council decision.

The Guelph Chamber will continue to support regional highway infrastructure improvement through the re-opening of the GTA West Study discussions. This supports staff recommendations in Guelph and in Waterloo Region, and Waterloo Regional Council, but not Guelph City Council. We will respect Council’s decision and how it relates to staff involvement in ongoing work. I feel I did not make my points effectively enough, that the entire study would need to be re-opened without bias so that a more complete study could be done to include Highway 7, the Waterloo Airport, and economic regions west and north of Guelph. This would also include demand management analysis. The GTA West study needs to include the recent highway decision and the work that will come forward on the Brantford to Cambridge study and Waterloo-Wellington-Dufferin study.

The Chambers of Commerce will be submitting a joint resolution at the Ontario Chamber AGM (attached) as we did last year to move Highway 7 forward. I have just done a media spot with 570 news to say the Guelph Chamber is supporting the development of a regional study, and we will continue to try to move this forward under the agenda of the business community. When asked we will respond to media emphasizing the critical nature of getting the highway improvements done, to include more than adding more lanes and more gridlock to Highway 401. The City of Guelph will pay for the additional maintenance on Woodlawn Road and elsewhere as provincial traffic continues to use our roads.

Sometimes we just agree to disagree with City Council but will be respectful of your decision. We will keep you informed as things progress in case there are issues that need to be brought forward again to Council. LL