ABC Visits Perth South Council

ABC will be visiting several Councils in the next few weeks. Below are some recommendations we are taking to them. In addition we have an ANNEX on Drainage, common to them all.


Recommendations to the Reeve and Council of Perth South for Consideration on the Proposed Development of Highway 7& 8


The Agricultural Business Community (ABC) Chapters suggest there are two areas deserving your consideration.

A Drainage
B Traffic Counts

We have prepared four recommendations and support material is provided in the Annex.

A Agricultural Drainage

There are important implications to this Municipality and its tax-payers concerning municipal and agricultural drainage pending the selection of a final corridor and route for the proposed expansion of Highway 7/8 by MTO.

From the perspective of the Agricultural Business Community the potential drainage issues are three-fold:

. The impact of a four lane highway corridor on municipal drains;
. The impact on private drains; and
. The associated drainage costs to individual landowners resulting from highway development.

A drainage specialist with OMAFRA informs us that the widening and expansion of Highway 16 in Eastern Ontario into Highway 416 parallels circumstances of the proposed new Highway 7/8 corridor. The development of Highway 416 set a precedent for MTO where financing for municipal governments and individuals was made available on matters of drainage.

Therefore, We Recommend the Township of Perth South:

1. Submit a formal notice and request to MTO, specifying that drainage is a serious municipal concern, particularly for any four lane expansion, and that assurance will be required, before any approval of the selected route, that surface water volumes from the proposed route are manageable and not disruptive to municipal drains. In other words, assurance is needed that surface water can be brought to sufficient outlet.

2. For each existing municipal drain impacted by the highway project, the municipality should appoint an engineer under the Drainage Act to investigate the impacts of the highway project on the municipal drain, specify in the engineer’s report any necessary changes to the drain and ensure that the drain has the capacity to accommodate the additional flows. MTO should be required to pay the full cost of this work.

3. Request that MTO cover the entire costs for every adjacent landowner and agriculturalist whose private drains may be affected by the selected route to facilitate them in selecting and hiring the services of a tile drainage contractor, licensed under the Agricultural Tile Drainage Installation Act, to assess and resolve any potential impacts on private drainage systems including laterals, ditches, culverts, sub-mains and other items associated with any potential new drainage demands.

4: While there are many municipal drains in the area, it is possible that the additional runoff generated by this project may create areas that have no suitable drainage outlet into an existing municipal drain. In those situations, MTO must not be permitted to direct their water onto the adjoining land. They must be required to petition under the Drainage Act for a drainage system that will properly drain the water generated from the new highway.

We trust that our Municipality will want to thoroughly assess the implications of the proposed highway expansion for our drainage infrastructure prior to further decisions.


B Traffic Counts

Traffic counts, existing and projected, are a fundamental fact of information driving the planning process. Wilmot Township, with technical support provided by the Engineering Department of the Region of Waterloo, questioned the traffic counts and population projections provided by the consulting team. They recommended that the consultants look at revising and lowering figures in their analysis. As volunteers we do not have the expertise to evaluate these figures. We believe, however, that these projected numbers are driving the plans for a proposed ring road, south of the City of Stratford, and across many of our farms in Perth East and Perth South.

We Recommend the Township of Perth South:

5: Contract an independent consultant to confirm or disconfirm the validity of the traffic numbers being used, both existing and projected, before the Ministry considers a route for a Highway 7 & 8 corridor south of Stratford connecting to Sebringville.

We trust that our Municipality will also want to be assured of the actual need for a four-lane corridor based on traffic numbers through our Municipality.