Feds continue push for Kettle Island bridge
Plan already facing stiff opposition at local, neighbourhood levels
An issue that many residents in this area thought had long since been put to bed continues to rear its head.
On Jan. 30, Steven MacKinnon, MP for Gatineau and Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, announced the next steps in the development of a ’multimodal bridge’ in the eastern part of Ottawa. More precisely, the bridge would cross Kettle Island, linking Montée Paiement in Gatineau with the Aviation Parkway.
“This is a great day for the people of Gatineau and the Outaouais,” he said at a press conference in Gatineau. “Today, the Government of Canada is taking concrete action to improve interprovincial mobility from east to west in the National Capital Region.”
McKinnon said pre-planning work will move ahead through the integrated project office, involving Public Services and Procurement Canada, the National Capital Commission (NCC), and a ‘technical advisor’. That work includes an impact study, design, preliminary preparation of the site, and the development of a procurement strategy.
Solving problems
While he acknowledged the plan to move ahead won’t come without controversy, he argued the construction of an eastern bridge to help alleviate truck traffic from King Edward Avenue and downtown Ottawa, “will solve many, many, many more problems than it will create.
“We’ve all seen the double-stacked logging trucks rumbling by the Shepherds of Good Hope. And we’ve all recoiled at that very thought,” he said. “Today, we are solving that problem.”
In response to a reporter’s question about neighbourhood opposition, he insisted the NCC “will be consulting diligently.”
He spoke specifically of the effect the bridge would have in Manor Park.
“There are tremendous possibilities that open themselves to people in Manor Park, people in that part of Ottawa. We will be listening very closely and dealing very sensitively with what they are advocating. But we have a major problem in this region and it’s a major problem that has grown significantly for the people of Ottawa, specifically the people of Lowertown.”
Tough sell
Despite the minister’s assurances, the bridge doesn’t appear to be anywhere on the city’s radar at this time. There was no representation from the City of Ottawa — either mayor or councillors — at the Jan. 30 announcement. In fact, Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King restates his “firm opposition to the proposed Kettle Island bridge” in his latest column in the Chronicle.
He notes the project “fails to align with our sustainable transportation goals, risks harming our communities, and represents a misallocation of resources that could be better spent addressing pressing local needs.”
The minister, and NCC, will likely run up against stiff opposition, in Manor Park and neighbouring communities, just as it did when the bridge was proposed for Kettle Island (known as Corridor 5 in the 2013 technical studies) more than a decade ago.
Kettle Island bridge cost unclear
Manor Park Community Association President Natalie Belovic says the proposal fails on a number of fronts, noting this is “no longer a Manor Park problem.”
“There are many more new dwellings along the corridor since 2013 including Wateridge Village,” she noted in an email exchange with the Chronicle.
Trucks would continue to use King Edward while the new bridge/corridor would serve only to ruin more neighbourhoods.
“The announcement is clearly a means to transport Gatineau to Ottawa and back by car. It ‘could’ have transit and active transport but it is not a ‘will have’ at this point which is crazy in this day and age,” Belovic suggested.
The cost of the bridge remains a moving target, she said, and “has never included any mitigation so the costing has always been a bit of a false number.”
She also questions why the federal government would push ahead with this crossing when it “clearly stated that they would not support a vehicular crossing (for) Quebec City.”
‘Ecological solution’ needed
Resident Michael Bernard sums up the frustration many are feeling in this community, stating that simply shifting a commercial transport route from one neighbourhood to another makes no sense.
“Manor Park is an incredible and diverse community and we’re lucky to have access to some of the tiny bit of nature left in this city. This bridge and the emissions and noise from thousands of trucks will completely destroy our neighbourhoods.”
He suggested the government go back to the drawing board “to find an ecological solution that all stakeholders can embrace that doesn’t pollute and ruin anyone’s backyard.”
According to a government press release, consultations will be held with the public, Indigenous communities and stakeholders, sometime in 2025.
Anyone who would like to receive updates on the consultations can email a registration request to consultations@ncc-ccn.ca.
Ryland Coyne wrote this article.