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Subject:
Re: Robert Chisholm's Statement for Tuesday June 29
Date:
Fri, 02 Jul 1999 10:29:59 -0300
From:
"Marcus Garnet" <garnetm@region.halifax.ns.ca>
To:
NORMANLP@gov.ns.ca
As a constituent who was looking to the NDP for some real changes, the
emphasis on roadbuilding is very disappointing. No mention is made of
public transit, which has almost disappeared in rural communities and
small towns. New Glasgow - Stellarton area lost its transit system when
the province cut out the financial support, Annapolis Valley bus service
to Yarmouth has been reduced, the bus service to Parrsboro has been lost,
regional train service has been totally cut, and we nearly lost the South
Shore and Eastern Shore bus services a couple of years ago.
I own a car, but far prefer to use public transport, and do so whenever
possible. However, it is less and less possible, due to provincial
policy that supports roads but not public transport. So I am forced to
join the car-driving ratrace whether I want to or not, and my car gets
added to the already mounting traffic. Besides people like myself who
are being forced to drive, 30% of Nova Scotians don't even have access to
a car when they need it. Many of them are in rural areas. What is the
NDP going to do for them?
I am not opposed to strategic investment in better roads, but this NDP
announcement sounds too much like the old Liberals and Tories trying to
bribe us with our own money, without an overall strategy for integrated,
balanced and sustainable transportation for Nova Scotia.
Without a balanced strategy, roadbuilding becomes a self-perpetuating
cycle due to the phenomenon of induced demand - ie., a new road attracts
traffic from other routes and modes, eventually becoming congested sooner
than anticipated, leading to demands for further public spending, ad
infinitum. Careless road expansion also causes metropolitan areas to
sprawl outwards, encouraging car-dependent lifestyles which generate even
more traffic, congesting the new roads and leading to more spending.
According to Mark Hanson at the University of California at Berkely, in
metropolitan regions "a 1.0 percent increase in lane miles induces a 0.9
percent increase in vehicle-miles travelled within 5 years." Our taxes
cannot afford to support this kind of runaway spending, nor can our land
supply and air quality.
So I am very disappointed in the NDP's decision to follow the Liberal and
PC tradition of roadbuilding as a cure-all for the province's woes.
Surely the NDP can come up with something more creative - including a
restoration of provincial funding for transit? When the Parrsboro bus
service was abandoned, it was noted that the cost of subsidiziing the
service for a year was the same as the cost of building enough highway to
park the bus on. Let's have some real alternatives and a sense of
balance in our transportation policy!
I was seriously considering voting NDP this time; however after this
announcement I will not support the party unless I hear some clear
commitments toward public transport in this province.
- Marcus Garnet, Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners
>>> "Linda Norman" <NORMANLP@gov.ns.ca> 06/29 5:38 PM >>>News Release
June 29, 1999
IT'S TIME TO STAND UP FOR NOVA SCOTIA COMMUNITIES, CHISHOLM SAYS
Halifax- NDP Leader Robert Chisholm today released the second of five
platform papers his party will present during the current election
campaign.
The platform paper outlines a series of specific steps an NDP
government
will take "to stand up for Nova Scotia communities and end the decades of
Liberal and Tory failures," said Chisholm.
"First, an NDP government will stop the handouts to large
corporations, fly-
by-night companies and friends of the government," said the NDP Leader.
"Second, an NDP government will invest in roads and other economic
lifelines.
"Third, an NDP government will provide an economic Hand Up for
communities."
The platform calls for the allocation of $21 million to a Road
Improvement
Fund for work on rural secondary roads and a start on twinning of Highway
101. The $21 million represents a 41 per cent increase over the
road-building
money supported by Liberals and Tories in the 1998 budget.
Chisholm said the NDP will pay for increased spending on roads and a
$2.5
million expenditure on community-based economic initiatives with the $29
million it plans to save by putting an immediate moratorium on grants and
loans to large corporations, shutting down the Special Assistance slush
fund
that runs out of the minister's office and putting the Business
Development
Corporation on a self-sustaining basis.
"The old model of economic development... has failed," said Chisholm.
"An
NDP government will move forward into a new era of economic development.
An NDP government will make sure it is the communities themselves who
take charge of their economic future."
-30-
Statement by Robert Chisholm, Leader
June 29, 1999
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
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