Councillors Stephen Blais and Bob Monette today reaffirmed that they are steadfastly against an interprovincial bridge through the Greenbelt due to the destructive nature this option will impose on all east end residents and the environment.

“Orléans’ residents commute to Downtown Ottawa has been horrendous for decades but is now beginning to improve,” says Councillor Blais. “By placing a bridge here, the hundreds of millions to fix the Highway 417/174 split will have been wasted.”too common from Trim Road to the 174/417. The population of Orléans is only growing with more and more residents commuting downtown. The addition of trucks and commuters from Gatineau will clog the 174 and drive bridge traffic onto residential streets.

“Corridors 6 and 7 will knowingly destroy the Eastern Greenbelt”, said Councillor Monette. “A bridge at Green’s Creek will not only negatively impact residents for decades to come but will inevitably result in the creation of a “new split” in their backyard”.

The estimated costs for the bridge vary with each option. Kettle Island is estimated to cost $414M. Both Greenbelt options are more with Corridor 6 being an added $18M and Corridor 7 an added $132M more than the Kettle Island option. There will also be additional costs associated with the operating and maintenance of new infrastructure, over and above the existing infrastructure in Corridor 5.

“The City of Ottawa and Gatineau agree on a location, which is why the NCC should stop dithering on the location”, concluded Councillor Blais. “Elected officials have agreed that Kettle Island is the preferred location just as the Greber report, the Jacpat study and the Delcan study also concluded. We’re moving forward on LRT, Lansdowne and completed the revitalization of the Congress Centre – let’s complete this last decade’s old project with common sense.” concluded Councillor Monette.

Both the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau voted in favour of the single corridor recommendation made by the consulting team of Roche-NCE for the next phase of the environmental study: Kettle Island corridor. Councillors Blais and Monette are encouraging all East End residents to attend the public consultation taking place on June 12th from 3:00 to 9:00 pm at the Shenkman Arts Centre.