Ben Bennett

It was more than 12 years ago that some people stood up at meetings like these and questioned the wisdom and need for a Hanlon overpass at Wellington. It was built however, at exhorbitant cost by a government that was closing hospitals at the same time and now stands as classic example of a bad idea. A $30 million bad idea—one overpass.

In the intervening years many other people stood up at meetings like these and questioned the wisdom and need for a 400 series freeway with several overpasses between Guelph and Kitchener. It hasn't been built yet and at half a billion dollars—or $20,000 per driver using the highway — one wonders what we would have to give up to make it happen. Imagine the regional transit system you could build for one quarter of that...

I think it's safe to say that in 2008, there are more and more people asking questions. You have a petition that confirms this. And the big question that overshadows them all is this: In the age of high gas prices, climate change and Al Gore and all that comes with it, do we, as a society, really want to commit more resources to what is clearly an outmoded way of dealing with the future? You simply cannot build a major engineering project like this without destroying a lot of quality of life for a lot of people. It doesn't make sense.

Are we really that selfish?
We can do better.
We have to do better.

Only those with their heads firmly planted in the concrete — or anywhere else, come to that — could fail to see that we are not living in the 1960s and 1960s solutions simply cannot be sustained anymore.

All these plans before you today are based on business-as-usual scenarios. It is NOT business as usual! This is merely an extension of the monumental foolishness known as the Highway 7 freeway.
Let nobody kid themselves that this has anything to do with making life easier for Guelph residents — quite the contrary. It's about another way of connecting K-W and beyond to the 401 and some vague long-term connection to the 400.

Given that this is a provincial highway, and you do have some need to make your new industrial park accessible, this council is in a bit of a tricky situation here.

So, it would not be fair to expect you tell the Province that this is a ridiculous waste of taxpayers' dollars AND affront to the environment and the neighbourhood. All I ask is that you take the essence of that message and encourage the Province to show a little more creativity and a little less concrete.