I’m writing his column as I sit across the street from the Legislature building in Edmonton where I just finished a meeting with Minister Mason, Minister of Transportation. He had his Deputy Minister, Assistant Deputy Minister and MLA Cameron Westhead attend as well, so we certainly had the right people around the table to have the conversation about addressing Cochrane’s traffic issues around Highway 1A and 22.
I took every opportunity to speak about the benefits and challenges we face as a growing community.
I explained at great length why Cochrane is a community of choice for many new residents. We are working with others in the region to provide needs and services people look for when they choose a new community. Growth brings a variety of benefits: new and expanded business offerings so residents don’t have to go to Calgary for their shopping needs, as well as a wide range of housing options.
Council has started construction on our new aquatic and curling centre which will be a fantastic facility to serve our community. Growth also helps keep taxes low: dollars that would have otherwise come from the current residential tax base have paid for many past infrastructure projects, such as upgrades to our water and sewer treatment plants, creation of expanded parks and pathways.
These are just a few of the benefits to growth.
The biggest challenge we face is the increasing traffic congestion, especially on Highways 1A and 22.
You have all heard that these roads are the responsibility of the province. I explained that this is not just a Cochrane issue — this is a regional issue as people from all surrounding communities use these roads to get to the mountains, parks, and lakes.
From a municipal perspective, this is very frustrating as we have little to no control over the solutions. We started a working group with Alberta Transportation about a year ago and presented a plan to the ministry for an alternate solution many months back. I was promised today that they will be making a decision on the options by the end of this year, at which point it is a budgetary item for consideration.
We made it very clear that the two options have all the planning work completed and are both “shovel-ready.” This is important as the province is not funding projects that are still in planning stages.
I shared with them the challenges we are facing when we are presented with new neighborhood plans, such as the recent Southbow plan, where council had to weigh the pros and cons of approval, knowing that we wait on the province for movement on their obligations, such as the improvement to 1A and 22.
Council did approve the plan but it is very important to understand that that approval doesn’t mean the developer has the go-ahead to build anything. Council made it very clear that we must have the development industry as whole come to the table with a plan to address the road connections and bridge completion in order to move forward with land-use approvals and subsequent development.
In wrapping up our meeting I shared with them my beliefs that, at the end of the day, we all want the same things: well-planned communities, great shops and services, facilities for our families and the ability to get around our community in a safe and efficient manner.
As our newly elected provincial government, I asked that they be our partners in advancing our community and work with us to address and prioritize our community road needs.
I know they understand our needs. Let’s hope they are a government that acts as well.
