How did a new interprovincial bridge fall through the cracks of the federal election campaign?
Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: October 17, 2019
The best way to steer clear of an impending controversy might be to avoid it altogether, and that’s what seems to be happening in the federal election campaign when it comes to building a new bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau.
About six years ago, the prospect of building a $1-billion interprovincial crossing at Kettle Island at the east end raised such a furor that the Ontario government decided it wouldn’t support a bridge in that location, even though a lengthy environmental assessment had suggested it was the best spot for a sixth Ottawa-Gatineau bridge.
The issue remained dormant until earlier this year, when the federal Liberal government in the 2019 budget saddled the National Capital Commission with the job of investigating interprovincial crossings and refreshing the last study, adding grief to an agency already trying to figure out how to develop LeBreton Flats, fix 24 Sussex Dr., repair bridges, locate monuments and beautify shorelines.
A new interprovincial bridge over the Ottawa River — and maybe a second new bridge — was suddenly back in play.
The NCC called up consultant WSP Canada to refresh the bridge study shelved in 2013. The NCC will eventually receive an updated recommendation on where a sixth Ottawa-Gatineau crossing should be built.
The original lengthy environmental assessment ended with Kettle Island being recommended as the best bridge corridor and it’s unlikely that finding will change after the study’s refresh.
During the federal election campaign, though, local candidates have been quiet on possibility that a bridge carrying transport trucks, regular traffic and maybe public transit might be eyed for their communities.
The federal riding of Ottawa-Vanier is where a bridge at Kettle Island would touch down.
Liberal incumbent Mona Fortier wouldn’t say if she would be amenable to a bridge entering her riding, though she called for an “evidenced-based strategy” to understand people’s transportation needs, underscoring the requirement to replace the aging Alexandra Bridge while also getting heavy trucks out of Ottawa’s downtown.
“I have been advocating to have a transportation and transit regional strategy for the region and not a piecemeal approach,” Fortier said.
Conservative candidate Joel Bernard said the prospect of an interprovincial bridge cutting into the community was “a non-starter” for him: “I would be a fool to work on a project that would turn quiet Ottawa-Vanier neighbourhoods into noisy heavy truck highways.”
NDP candidate Stéphanie Mercier didn’t respond by deadline Thursday.
Another big study is examining interprovincial travel in the region with a focus on bridges, although the NCC picked the most politically sensitive time, right in the middle of a federal election campaign, to release a request for proposals looking for a consultant to do an “integrated interprovincial crossings plan.”
As it turned out, the request for proposals itself was so contentious for the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau that the mayors this week asked the NCC to press pause on the contract competition.
Included in the “key elements” the NCC wanted addressed in the study were implementation of a new interprovincial bridge in the eastern sector and “identification” of a future bridge corridor in the western sector. The NCC also wanted the consultant to look into “the feasibility of a perimeter ring road encircling the urban areas of Gatineau and Ottawa.”
The notion of finding a location for not only a sixth bridge in the east, but also a seventh bridge in the west, combined with the idea of creating a ring road for the region, was enough to raise red flags by both cities.
The NCC withdrew the request for proposals on Wednesday, with agency spokesman Mario Tremblay indicating the tender would be reissued “in a matter of weeks” after further talks with the cities.
Mayor Jim Watson has railed against any idea of building a sixth interprovincial bridge between his city and Gatineau, favouring a long-shot proposal to build a $2-billion tunnel between Highway 417 and the mouth of the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge as a way to divert truck traffic from Ottawa’s core. The city assumes other levels of government would pay for a tunnel.
An environmental assessment for a tunnel hasn’t had enough funding to begin, and, even if a study was completed, there would be questions about who would pay for a tunnel, considering the city also requires billions in upper-government money to extend LRT to its suburbs.
Meanwhile, city councillors like Mathieu Fleury are trying to mitigate the dangers of transport trucks rumbling through central-east communities between Highway 417 in Ottawa and Highway 5 in Gatineau. The city will only consider narrowing King Edward Avenue when a new interprovincial bridge is built and the street is removed from the truck route network, along with an increase in public transit use between the two cities. The city doesn’t have the necessary $2 million-$4 million to implement decent traffic calming on King Edward as a short-term solution.
So much in the City of Ottawa rides on an interprovincial bridge being built, or not being built, by the federal government in co-operation with Ontario and Quebec.
On one hand, heavy-duty trucks can be diverted from the downtown to a bridge, but that would just move the traffic problem to other communities. On the other hand, trucks would continue rumbling through the downtown without a bridge, sustaining a precarious streetscape for pedestrians and cyclists.
You can see how it’s easier for some federal candidates to avoid facing this controversy head-on.
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