One Mile a done deal
John Mazerolle
Telegraph-Journal
Published Tuesday June 26th, 2007
Mayor Norm McFarlane was so excited about the funding announcement for three of the city's key transportation priorities that he sounded for all the world like a teenager who'd just scored his first kiss.
"I had to call somebody to tell them," he said Monday after he phoned the Telegraph-Journal.
The $414-million federal-provincial agreement announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Fredericton includes six projects across New Brunswick, and three of them have a direct effect on Saint John. Money will go toward twinning the highway to St. Stephen, creating the Welsford bypass, and building the One Mile House interchange, an overpass that should simultaneously improve the city's economy and its quality of life.
"I'm completely excited about it," the mayor said.
One Mile is common council's biggest transportation priority, even though as a highway project it's the responsibility of higher levels of government.
The overpass - located literally one mile from the city centre - will keep heavy industrial traffic out of the uptown, while giving trucks easier access to the McAllister and Grandview industrial parks, as well as energy projects such as the Canaport LNG terminal and the site of the proposed second oil refinery.
"It puts us where we want to be with Atlantica," McFarlane said. "It puts us where we want to be as an energy hub."
The overpass will off-load traffic from Highway 1 to near Russell Street on the East Side. Trucks will no longer need to drive around Lower Cove Loop or take City Road, improving the flow of goods, making the uptown more pleasant, and taking stress off Saint John's streets.
Tracey Burkhardt, director of communications with the provincial Department of Transportation, said the One Mile project would begin next year. It's expected to cost $43.5 million and last four years. As with the entire deal, costs will be split evenly between the federal government and the province. (Negotiations for the needed land are not completed but are going well, Burkhardt said.)
McFarlane said the announcement shows what can happen when the city speaks with one voice to the other levels of government.
Coun. Bill Farren, who holds common council's trade-access portfolio and is second-in-command on transportation, said the interchange will be as important to the city as harbour cleanup.
"Not only are we keeping multiple and heavy trucks off city streets, it gives us the opportunity to attract more business," he said.
The announcements for work on Highway 1 and Highway 7, meanwhile, are like echoes of One Mile: construction projects that will improve the flow of goods in and out of Saint John while making citizens safer.
The Highway 1 money is meant for twinning the highway from Pennfield to Lepreau and from Waweig River to Murray Road, over the next 10 years.
Burkhardt said $167 million is set aside for those projects, while twinning the entire highway will eventually cost about $300 million altogether.
The highway work has been a priority for years for the Maine-New Brunswick Trade Corridor Committee - a group of business people and politicians from St. Stephen to Sussex, as well as Maine. Acting chairman Bob Brown said Harper's announcement fulfills years of promises.
"It's very positive that there's a time line," he said.
The Welsford bypass will be constructed between 2009 and 2014 at an expected cost of $64.8 million.
The bypass will be 10 kilometres long, but the total project area will be 13 kilometres. It includes about 1½ kilometres of realignment of the existing highway on each end of the bypass and two interchanges.
The three projects were the top three transportation priorities for the Saint John Board of Trade, said its president Imelda Gilman.
"I can't stop grinning," she said.
Gilman said improving Highway 7 is largely a safety issue, while the twinning of Highway 1 is a natural extension of building the One Mile interchange. "Improving our road to the border is going to help our region," she said.
The board had hoped the overpass would be built by 2010, but Gilman wasn't about to complain Monday. "From what I've been told, it will be the largest overpass in New Brunswick," she said.
Not everybody was impressed with Monday's announcement.
Saint John MP Paul Zed, the Liberals' Cities and Communities critic, noted in a news release that Harper and Premier Bernard Lord announced this agreement in the spring of 2006.
"I think Premier Shawn Graham deserves a great deal of credit for being aggressive and finalizing this agreement," Zed said. "The reality is New Brunswick hasn't received a dime since Prime Minister Harper and Premier Lord initially made this announcement 15 months ago."
He also said past instances of Liberal infrastructure funding had been more generous.
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WestJet rides the boom
John Mazerolle
Telegraph-Journal
Published Thursday June 28th, 2007
Appeared on page C1
WestJet's decision to continue its Toronto-Saint John flights year-round affects more than just people involved in the city's energy hub or its construction boom, says the chairwoman of the Saint John Board of Trade.
Nathalie Godbout says it helps people like her 13-year-old niece, too. For years, her niece, Brette Lawlor of Saint John, has wanted to visit a cousin in Unionville, Ont. This summer it will happen, Godbout said, because WestJet's arrival in the Port City mid-May has meant more choice for travellers and therefore better prices.
"It's not just business," Godbout said. "It's families looking at flying as an accessible, convenient means of travel."
Whether travelling teenagers or high-powered executives, airline passengers learned Wednesday that they will have the opportunity to choose between Air Canada and WestJet throughout the year, not only during the warmer months. WestJet, which flies from the Saint John Airport to Toronto every day but Saturday, will continue flying to Canada's largest metropolis during the winter months, although on a reduced schedule.
Come November, one of WestJet's 119- to 166-seat Boeing 737s will arrive in Saint John and take off for Toronto three days a week - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Godbout said increased flights and airline competition make the city more accessible, which increases commerce, industry and tourism. It also means more people in the city, which makes it more attractive and more likely to impress visitors or newcomers, she said.
While the energy sector has received much of the credit for attracting flights, Godbout said she believes other areas have helped, including tourism, the information technology sector, and the city's growth generally.
Ellen Tucker, the owner of Freedom Tours and Travel, said the increase in passenger traffic illustrates that the area has had enough travellers to support more flights all along, but was losing them to other airports.
She noted that not only has WestJet done well enough to extend its service, but Air Canada has increased its number of Toronto-bound flights, too. Air Canada increased the number of daily flights to four from three earlier this year, and to five for July and August.
Air Canada also offers three Montreal flights and four Halifax flights daily.
Sunwing Airlines is the final carrier involved, providing flights to sun destinations in Mexico from March to May. This was its first year, and the company will be back again in 2008.
The airport's leadership said earlier this month that the number of passengers who passed through the airport from January to May increased by 27 per cent compared to the same time last year.
Tucker said cheaper tickets have been a direct result: Although flights to Toronto can still fluctuate wildly depending on the circumstances - from about $200 to about $700 - she said the low-end prices were never available until WestJet arrived.
(Punching a Nov. 19 to 23 Saint John to Toronto flight into the websites of WestJet and Air Canada gets an identical price from each, $187.)
Travel agents appreciate WestJet for another reason, too: "They actually pay us commission, whereas the other guys don't," she said.
Tucker is part of the group that has lobbied airlines to come to Saint John - a team that includes travel agents, the Board of Trade, the airport and Mayor Norm McFarlane.
McFarlane has had an upbeat week, with news Monday that the higher levels of government would pay for the One Mile House interchange. The mayor said both successes came about for the same reason: "I think it's again because of the community working together."
McFarlane said the city's airport had gone underserviced for far too long, but at the same time he was careful to say that Air Canada is a "great company" that has always had a good relationship with the city.
"We have to make sure we're not doing anything to make Air Canada leave," he said.
Though convincing Air Canada to offer an Ottawa flight is a priority for the airport, Godbout, McFarlane and Saint John Airport CEO John Buchanan agree that the next step is a direct flight to New York.
Buchanan said the increase in flights will provide momentum in ongoing negotiations with a U.S. carrier for a New York flight.
The increased traffic, "proves, in my opinion, that Saint John's becoming a hub of industrial development," he said.
Buchanan also hopes that WestJet's winter season will go well, leading the company to increase the frequency of its service.
Natalie Green, communications co-ordinator with WestJet, said the airline tends to spread out its fleet of 65 planes during the cold months so it can provide more sun destinations.
She said the Saint John region's growth was a huge factor for the airline during its initial arrival, and a good year could potentially mean more flights in the following winter season.
In the meantime, Buchanan offered a very western celebration of WestJet's announcement: "Yee-haw," he said. "It's been a long time coming."
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