Last week’s announcement that construction of the new Highway 55/813 interchange is scheduled to start in May spurred a flurry of public reaction, much of it calling on local municipal governments — particularly Athabasca town council — to take a more active role in the debate.
We couldn’t agree more.
As stated last week, Alberta Transportation has always been the driving force behind this project. There was never a public demand for a new interchange, and that’s probably why there’s much more interest in the project now, at the so-called 11th hour, than there was when it was first proposed a decade ago.
But whether the community outcry is late or not, town council has an obligation to acknowledge and respond to it.
On that count, town council is starting to fall behind.
Last week, a point of contention surfaced over the width of the sidewalk on the new Tawatinaw River bridge. After conferring with Alberta Transportation, council settled on a sidewalk wider than it is now, but not as wide as it potentially could be.
Council’s stated rationale was that it was better to accept the plans and move the project forward, than to put up a fight and run the risk of delaying it. While the sidewalk agreed to may turn out to be just fine, that rationale nevertheless raises the question of whose interests council is representing: those of its walking and cycling citizens, or Alberta Transportation’s?
Now this week comes the revelation that the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), which has jurisdiction over the Tawatinaw River, has yet to approve the interchange project — particularly its most controversial element: diverting the Tawatinaw with an engineered channel.
Mind you, this doesn’t mean that the DFO won’t approve the project, or that Alberta Transportation can’t proceed with other aspects of the project in the meantime, but it puts into question a major component of the project, about which the Tawatinaw Watershed Stewards and many other community residents have serious reservations.
So now it’s town council’s turn to weigh in.
On one hand, they could side with the project’s outspoken local critics, publicly reject the Tawatinaw diversion and attempt to throw a wrench in the works. They’d be vilified in some circles for delaying the project further, but would be respected by others for listening to a vocal electorate.
On the other hand, council could also tell the critics that they’re too late; that this is a needed project for the community and the opportunity to alter it has long since passed. Again, it’d be an unpopular move in some circles, but after a decade, a move that’s not hard to justify.
What council mustn’t do, however, it sit silently and let the DFO and Alberta Transportation settle it. The most common complaint from the public is that town council has been too quiet and disengaged regarding this entire project. The result is that this is deemed as a project been done ‘to’ Athabasca, rather than ‘for’ it.
Council has a role and a voice in this process, and they need to use it.
