Deadline approaches for Highway 7/8 input

The Beacon Herald - Feb. 3,2009
By DONAL O'CONNOR

Executives of the Agriculture Business Communities of Perth East, Perth South and Wilmot are reminding farm families and others who stand to be impacted by a possible expansion of Highway 7/8 to get their views in to the Ministry of Transportation study by Friday.

The farm business representatives have been making presentations to area municipalities about drainage issues related to highway expansion and informing municipal officials of the potential for provincial government funding.

They are also recommending that Perth East and Perth South work together to hire an outside consultant to help them review traffic counts since the counts have considerable bearing on the level of highway improvement that may be recommended.

"As the lion's share of the route is in Perth County we think there needs to be an independent review and we don't have the skills in our group to do that," said Paula Neice, an executive member of the agri-business coalition.

The study, when it started, was for a four-lane controlled access highway like the 401, said Ms. Neice, and the community has argued all along "that's simply over the top."

"The numbers don't justify it."

Ms. Neice said the numbers are highest in the Wilmot section of the highway, but it's the agricultural community that will end up having the suggested road expansion on their backs.

The area agricultural business communities presented a report in September on their concerns around highway expansion and what they felt were "serious limitations in the study methodology."

The report hammered home the point that the land in the corridor between New Hamburg and Stratford to the south of the existing highway is some of the very best farmland in Canada. "It is our industrial and economic engine and its impact and worth to our communities cannot continue to be ignored," the report says. "Multimillion-dollar farm operations in North and South Easthope, Wilmot and Downie deserve the same respect for their contribution to economic life as their urban business counterparts and require the same sensitivity to their potential disruption."

"Our thinking (now) is that we need to start to sew the seeds for when the final route is chosen and if we don't do that now the municipalities won't have had a chance to review this with their own drainage specialists and get their own position made," said Ms. Neice.

She said the coalition represents 300 to 400 farm families in Perth South, Perth East and Wilmot townships.