Belleville City Council has approved a motion from Councillor Kathryn Brown to not support the proposed southern corridor of the Alto High-Speed Rail line project.
According to councillor Brown’s motion, the proposed southern corridor portion of the project would significantly impact Ward 2 (Thurlow).
“Early estimates suggest that this southern corridor could impact up to 2500 to 2700 homeowners in Belleville,” Councillor Brown said in discussing her motion.
“The southern corridor will impact a swath of agricultural properties and potentially impact up to eight Quinte Conservation land holdings just in our area alone, including the Sidney Conservation Authority and the HR Frink Centre, not to mention our watershed as a whole.”
Brown compared the development of HSR compared to the development of Highway 401 back in the 1950s and 1960s.
“Every town or city benefited from the 401 going through with the on and off ramps created and Alto HSR only has three stops in Ontario, Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa,” Brown explained.
“The highway allowed increased supply chain transportation between major cities and small towns alike. Industrial growth occurred around the highway, and access was easily achieved from those on and off ramps. While 401 originally created a perceived barrier, perceived in quotations, population growth required new homes, new commercial businesses and new industrial sites to leap across that barrier as the under and overpasses were created at regular intervals along the 401. When that highway was built, it accommodated the fact that people needed to get back and forth.”
Brown finished by urging her colleagues to “just say no” to the Alto southern corridor proposal.
Council voted in favour of the motion.
As part of motion, a copy would be sent to Steve McKinnon, Federal Minister of Transportation, Prime Minister Mark Carney, MP Shelby Kramp-Neuman, MP Chris Malette, Premier Doug Ford, MPP Ric Bresee, MPP Tyler Allsopp, Martin Imbleau, president of Alto, and neighbouring municipalities within the HSR southern corridor.
