Request against TTC

Save Our St. Clair appeals to the Minister of Environment

The Provincial minister of Environment might have the final say on the matter of the controversy over the TTC plan for St. Clair Avenue.
Last week, several members of SOS - Save Our St. Clair delivered to minister Leona Dombrowsky a voluminous document concerning the purported impact of "Option 6", the plan that includes an exclusive right-of-way for streetcars on St. Clair.
The document includes 53 pages plus 16 enclosures, as well as copies of 10,000 signatures collected by the opposers of the plan and presented to City Hall.
The rather big dossier was prepared by Margaret Smith, spokesperson for the Save Our St. Clair committee.
"I've worked a lot for preparing the package," remarked Margaret Smith, "even during the Christmas festivities. But we wanted to give the minister a full and detailed picture of our take on what happened here, of the TTC plan approved by the City Council and of the alternative proposals we've made in order to prevent the installation of barriers."
In practice, the study is made up of three volumes in a box, detailing what has been approved (including additional works still lacking funding), documents on public consultations, data on the social and economic impact, traffic data and simulations, detailed analyses of some problematic crossings and alternatives and counterproposals that have been formulated in order to preserve the socioeconomic and cultural landscape of the avenue. The documents are meant to highlight the consequences on the life of the residents foreseen for the TTC plan. City Hall has not considered these opinions, nor passed them to the minister of Environment for inclusion in the assessment of the problem: the human side - SOS maintains - was ignored.
The documents were handed to Art Chamberlain, Communications Director of the Ministry, by Margaret Smith, David Tarnow, Heather McDonald, and Rose Signorile, the four SOS members tasked with delivery.
In addition to the 70+ page bundle, the delegation delivered a letter summarizing all the points, requesting that the project be reclassified, from a "Schedule C Project" to "St. Clair Avenue West Transit Improvements Class Environmental Assessment Request for a Part II Order".
Now the minister has 21 days for examining the whole project and decide whether to consider the requests rejected by the City Council or uphold the City's decision.

Publication Date: 2005-01-16
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=4825