Guelph Mercury
Oct 1, 2007
If you announce it, it will come was one way of interpreting last March's declaration that an oft-discussed and long-delayed four-lane Highway 7 from Guelph to Kitchener had finally been given the green light.
"This Highway will be built," crowed Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield, stating she doesn't expect a lot of opposition considering the current highway is usually as congested as a Canadian's schnoz in February. And, oh yes, the province has successfully consulted with First Nations on land claims issues, she said.
Well, it turns out, not so much. Six Nations representatives say there is no formal application in their hands from the province to permit this 18-kilometre freeway to proceed. And there should be, considering the band council has among other things claims on the Grand River, which would be spanned by the highway.
We're well aware of the potentially explosive nature of land claims disputes, as evidenced by the ongoing one in Caledonia. Others have been resolved more peacefully, but not without causing disruption. A notable example is a new bridge across the Grand River that will link Kitchener's Fairway Road and Kossuth Road in Cambridge.
That $28-million project, expected to be constructed in 2009 and 2010, got back on the rails in April after a year-long delay while Waterloo Regional councillors consulted with the Six Nations over their claim to the river.
The planning for the Highway 7 project itself was stalled for a year during a consultation period with another Brantford-area band, the Mississaugas of the New Credit, two years back.
While some in the Six Nations express optimism that the freeway will be able to proceed without undue delay, others are more circumspect, expressing concern about the environmental impact of such a mega-highway project.
With each year of such delays calculated to add $27 million in highway costs, and the project itself expected to escalate from about $300 million this year to $400 million or more by the earliest expected completion date of 2014, Cansfield's prediction of no major opposition to a project that has yet to get underway may turn to ash.