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Commentary
Councillor should seize opportunity to cancel roundabout project
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online
On
Friday, city council found out that the controversial roundabout to be built at
the intersection of St. Joseph and Jeanne d'Arc boulevards will cost $750,000
more than first estimated. With
the news, the local councillor has been handed a golden opportunity to try and
convince his fellow councillors to cancel the controversial project. Ordinarily,
once council makes a decision to do something it can't be reversed unless they
agree to wave the rules which requires a three-quarter majority vote. However,
decisions can be revisited whenever new information exists which might have altered
the original vote had it been known at the time. As far as I am concerned this
latest bit of news qualifies as new information, which means council can revisit
their initial decision. At
present, the local councillor plans to only ask his colleagues to approve an additional
$800,000 for streetscaping on St. Joseph Blvd. to replace the money which now
must be used to cover the revised estimate. In
my opinion, the councillor is missing a golden opportunity to have the project
canceled and instead use the money to begin the process of burying the overhead
wires which have long been an issue. It's
bad enough that he supported the idea of the roundabout when it was first announced
last December, and then changed his mind after public opposition to the project
began to mount in January. It's even worse that he now says he never supported
the project in the first place, when in an article that appeared on pages C2 and
C3 of the Dec. 11 edition of the Ottawa Citizen he clearly did. In fact,
he's quoted in the article as saying the roundabout would give a better "bang
for our buck". But
to let this opportunity go by without at least trying to convince his colleagues
to revisit their initial decision, would be a disservice to the thousands of residents
who expect their local councillor to look after their best interests.
(Posted 8:30 a.m., July 10) Return
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