Then I got this reply in the June 17 issue....

To which I did both a short reply which printed on June 24

Of course, I needed more room to answer properly, so here is the long answer.....

I would like to take the opportunity to respond to Mr. Tom’s letter in last week’s West Carleton Review.  I remain committed to my statement that March Road need to be completed sooner rather than later based on the following and the content of my original commentary.

First, as a resident of Kanata North, I suspect Mr. Tom already utilizes the bike lanes which the city provided along March Road and that he commutes away from Ward 5 and not into it.  Second, let me point out to Mr. Tom that my letter was written in the West Carleton Review, which one assumes, would be applicable to West Carleton residents.

Since the door has been opened on Ward differences with the letter, allow me to point out why my views, by geo-social differences likely would differ from a Ward 4 resident.  Here are a few key numbers from the City of Ottawa website, using 2008 data.  In each data pair, the first number is for Kanata North, the second for West Carleton-March: Total area in sq. km – 24.2 vs 719.2; percent of total city of Ottawa area, excluding the Greenbelt– 0.9% vs. 27.8%; Population – 30,128 vs. 24,135; Households per sq, km – 461.3 vs 11.7.   Basically, Ward 5 is 30 times bigger and has 80% of the population of Kanata North.  I have to assume the numbers are correct in spite of the fact that the web page does have an entire column [which I did not use] where the data is obviously wrong.  As an aside, a displayed page with content errors or getting the 404 missing page message, happens much too frequently on the City website.

For the most part, our major roads are unlit and exposed to winds which gust across open fields.  These winds drive snow across the dark roads in the region a good portion of the year.  I don’t recall seeing any bicycle on the section of March Road I referred to in my article last week during December or January, or a cyclist come into the organization where I was working in that time period.  We have virtually no transit presence, save ParaTranspo in the ward.    Just to point things out clearly, let me take what the impact of transit would be on finances.  The city has a tool which can be used to estimate the transit portion of your property taxes.  Lets assume a home value of $400k.  The property taxes for the house would be on the order of $400+ a year more. Would I accept the extra tax burden for my Ward, no way.  In order to be fair and equitable, if this was thrust upon me as the Councillor, I would say fine, but it has to be implemented ward wise, providing the same frequencies as the Kanata 60 series routes have, comparable route end to Transitway station times as the 60 bus.  I will be so generous as to give it an extra 10 minutes and allow 30 minutes. Last, lets state that no person has to walk more than .5 of a km to get to a bus stop.  I an not in a position to try and route and schedule OC Transpo but suffice it to say there would be a lot of buses required, buses that would run with very low load factors and thus be a horrendous loss AND pollute the environment.  Mass transit is only environmentally friendly when it is transmitting masses.  Would I support this – no way.

Car pooling is great but you need density to have it work.  Of course the vehicle and population density is low HERE, we live, most of us by choice, in a rural area and the odds are slim to nil that our neighbors work in the same area, at the same time.  Further, I bet you would see the same density (1 person per vehicle) in the vehicles turning onto March Road from Morgan’s Grant any morning and you have transit and bus lanes.  I know that’s what I see when sitting at the light at that location.

Cars, like it or not, are a fact of life in the 21st century.  I fully commend the province of Ontario for the rebate program they announced Friday June 18th for subsidies for hybrid vehicles.  Hopefully this will be a long lived program and will move the province well past its announced 5% hybrid vehicle goal in 2020.  It also was pointed out on CFRA on Friday June 18 during the morning show that it is the taxes paid by car drivers that support transit.  They have the shows available on line and the discussion basically revolved around “problems with people who choose to try and socially engineer us out of our cars “.  You might wish to engage them in a discussion.

When I have asked residents in the region what issues are important to them, more rural bike lanes isn’t in the top 20.  Having said that, being a City Councillor means looking at things that are important for the city as a whole.  Let’s focus on the bike issue at the city level.  Clearly, the population density and vehicle density within the urban and in some suburban areas can be such that bike lanes or dedicated paths are advantageous.  One idea, if elected in October that I would task staff to investigate and determine the cost would be the incorporation of a bike tunnel to be implemented along side the LRT tunnel [assuming it gets voted to proceed during the next 2 weeks].  Bike tunnels have proved very popular and successful in Europe and with access locations at each LRT station WOULD allow year round bike use in that corridor.  Would I promote covered bike lanes outside of the urban area – No.

OC Transpo has tried service to more rural areas in a “Push” manner, ie providing the service and trying to build demand.  People don’t want it because of the cost, lack of schedule flexibility and/or frequency etc.   As for the two heavy rail track lines you discussed, they are both single tracks meaning any usage would have to be low in frequency.  Movement towards a Go-Transit/Metrolinx  [Toronto] like system using Heavy Rail, Light Rail and Bus has been part of my platform since day 1 of my campaign so we agree on that concept.

Here are a few of the items which, if elected I would bring to the table for consideration:  incorporation of congestion tax to make driving a vehicle in the downtown core more cost prohibitive than taking OC Transpo [see April 1 issue of the WCR]; investigate a portal to portal bike tunnel to be built concurrent with the LRT tunnel [again assuming the current council passes it]; an integrated Light Rail, Heavy Rail bus system to service areas where the demand exists.    Further, I propose that all 4 rural wards be designated a ‘Farm Belt” and high density housing and development limited,  except in certain areas, such as the Carp Road BIA/Airport area.    In order to get input from residents, I will implement a Ward 5 council patterned on some of the other existing ward councils (Ward 4 and 21 are examples), which will be open to residents of the ward..  Last in this list, I would task each City of Ottawa department with checking and validating all of their own web pages.  I certainly don’t have a high degree of comfort when I see obvious numerical errors on financial pages.  I would point out to Mr. Tom, that had he viewed my platform on my website, he would have found both the first and third items have been part of my campaign since day 1.   There are a lot of other  solid ideas on the site too.

Certain candidates have proposed transportation concepts ranging from water taxis to cable cars to make the use of personal vehicles lower.   Mr. Toms  suggested heavy rail trucked hybrid transforming buses are an example of the $1000 hammer type solutions which, have to be rejected strictly on a cost/benefit basis..  I would like to think that common sense should be used in looking at what a city should implement in the way of all its expenditures, whether it be for infrastructure, new capital projects, social programs and so on.    Mr. Bob Plamondon, who was brought in by the Mayor to look at the city finances for the last 4 years did not paint a pretty picture.  One media source summed it up by: “The next council has to do better.”.  I will leave it up to you to go to the City website or to call 311 and find out who the council members are that comprise the Audit, Budget and Finance Committee.

While I certainly welcome comments from any city residents, I suggest to Mr. Tam that your lobbying efforts would be more effective with the current council members and the candidate(s) in your area.  The current incumbents got us to where we are now.  What everyone in the city has to decide when the election takes place is are you happy with your current representation on council when compared with the non incumbents who have been and are campaigning actively.    For those who are interested in the campaign, I would suggest you check out www.perspectiveottawa.com.  The site has been created to give the non incumbents the opportunity to express their opinions on a city wide level due to the advantage incumbent candidates have in this and any election.

A last point I feel I need to make.  Unlike some other politicians and politicos, I will do my level best to justify or defend my positions with facts, during the campaign and if successful, once elected.  Not only that, I will show you what the key items are, I will provide links to them where possible.  I trust that you will make what you feel is the right decision when the election takes place.  I am not seeking this position to make friends or be everything for everybody.  I welcome a spirited debate, such as the one initiated by Mr. Tom because he said, in essence “I disagree with you on this because of the following…”    If I am categorically wrong, or made a mistake, by all means point it out to me with the correct facts.  I certainly will take every opportunity to clarify my position on the issue or item.  We may agree to disagree, and I am fine with that. One thing you should never expect to get from me as a justification is a waffled ‘because it is’ answer.