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Premier Ford to require cities to seek provincial approval for new bike lanes · Kvetch & Release

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Hey, we're back John Lecke here on Am eight hundred CKLW.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Hope you're all doing well. It is ten forty seven
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: news out of Toronto right now Queens Park. The province
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: is moving to restrict new bike lanes in municipalities. This
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: is a rather big deal, to be perfectly honest. What
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: we're looking at right now is new red tape that's
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: being added by the province. Municipalities would be directed to
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: demonstrate that the proposed bike lanes won't have a negative
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: impact on vehicle traffic, says the government. Training me right
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: now to discuss this is Ward nine councilor Kieran McKenzie. Hey, Kieren,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: how you doing.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: I'm doing great, John. How about yourself?
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Doing really well? Thank you? How are you feeling about
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: this usurping of your authorities that you have as an
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: elected official here in the city from what the province
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: is putting truly learning again that municipalities are just creatures
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: of the province.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely atrocious, atrocious piece of legislation. Another atrocious piece of
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: legislation that's being brought forward by the province. I won't
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: be surprised when the day comes when they're looking to
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: tweak it. After they passed this, they often move forward
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: with legislation and half based ideas, push something through the
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: legislature because it sounds good on paper, you know, at
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: some kind of discussion that they might have had in
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: an informal setting, and then they realized that they made
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: a big mistake and they have to go back and
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: fix it. And I think that that's what's going to
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: happen with this. It's an overreach and it's frankly, it's
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: an as you point out, it's a usurpation of municipal
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: authority in an area that the municipalities should have pretty much,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: in my views, full autonomy.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: This doesn't sound like an issue that Windsor is dealing
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: with right now. Honestly, I try to think of a
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: city that might be dealing with this other than Toronto,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to have I have a hard time
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  Speaker 1: putting anything on that list.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Well, look, I don't care about Toronto to be to
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: be brutally honest, But what I care about is what
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: I know is happening in our community. Is it's a
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: it's a battle. It's a battle every single day for
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: anyone that wants to recognize is that we need to
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: improve the transportation network in our community, and particularly the
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: active transportation network. Now, as you point out, the province,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: because of some half baked ideas, has put more red
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: tape in front of us and made it even harder
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  Speaker 2: than it already is for us to move forward with
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  Speaker 2: completing the just what we've what we've already agreed should
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: be our active transportation network, but also moving forward, you know,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: how we can improve upon what we've already what we've
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: already planned to do.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: It seems like this could be a potential like a
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: huge waste of money that we, like we've already spent
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: here if we get refute used for our current active
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: master active transport plan, what happens with all the hours
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: that have been spent by administration putting it together.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so it's it is a huge waste of time,
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  Speaker 2: money and resources both in Queen's Park. It's a waste
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: of everybody's time. It's a waste of everybody's time in
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  Speaker 2: the City of Winter who now have to go back
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: and review the extent to which they need provincial approvals
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: to do those things, and then doing all of that
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: work is an additional allownt waste of time, so you
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: talk about, you know, this is the government that oftentimes
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: likes to talk about the idea of reducing read tapes,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: reminding protests and all of that. And it just because
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: it looks to me like the Premiere is a little
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: bit upset with the way, with the fact that this
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: commute back and forth to work from a Tobacota Queen's
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Park isn't isn't or isn't quick in our form that
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: he's continuing some of the work that he did while
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: he was on council in terms of actively advocating against
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: active transportation. And again, this is counselor forward doing things
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: that you know, you know, fulfilling his wish list as
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: the premier. It's it's it's I think it's just misguided.
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  Speaker 2: And hopefully I'm not optimistic about what he may or
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: may choose it may or may not choose to do.
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  Speaker 2: But hopefully they'll think better of this as time goes forward,
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  Speaker 2: or perhaps the opposition can cannot some sense into him
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: one way or another. But this is this is just
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: a bad move all the way around.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I guess we really lucked out by getting those new
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: bike lanes put in on Victoria Downtown as well as
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Polisher when we did, because had we not acted when
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: we did, it seems like that process could have been
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: delayed who knows months to years potentially.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Now, yeah, we'll see how, we'll see how, you know,
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  Speaker 2: quickly this is able to make its way through the
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: legislative process. But but yeah, I mean again, as you're
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: pointing out, every recycling project or active transportation infrastructure project
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  Speaker 2: that's on the table now needs to be real view,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: there's time and money associated with with that, with that process.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: So already the premieu is costing people money for no
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: good reason. This is a ridiculous, ridiculous policy proposal.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: You know, you find yourself in a really interesting place
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  Speaker 1: here in straddling both, you know, an urban ward but
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  Speaker 1: also a suburban ward. And I wonder how you're able
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: to do that still receiving you know, the electoral votes
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: that you do. You're you're still elected. It seems like
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  Speaker 1: there is a path that could be charted that takes
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  Speaker 1: into account both the needs, well the needs of all
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: road users rather than picking and choosing one over the other.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: You seem to be able to navigate that pretty well.
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  Speaker 2: That's a really good point, John, That so the idea
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  Speaker 2: that you're just gonna, you know, take away capacity for
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  Speaker 2: other modalities, or just look at the look at the
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: public right away through the lens of just like one
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  Speaker 2: type of user, and that by addressing just those folks,
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  Speaker 2: that you're going to make things better for everybody. You're not.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: You're just not. If you really want to address congestion,
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  Speaker 2: you should be doubling down on active transportation, should be
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: doubling down and supporting municipalities being able to improve their
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: transit systems. What causes congestion is too many single passenger
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: or private vehicles on the road. That causes congestion. And
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  Speaker 2: I understand why people make those choices because, at least
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: in our community, the tuble transit system is subpard and
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: the active transportation network is also sub part, so they
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: make the choice to get in their cars. So reducing
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: our capacities to be able to add active transportation infrastructure
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  Speaker 2: actions in marketing in will have the opposite effect of
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  Speaker 2: what's being intended, which is why this policy is so misguided.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: It doesn't solve the problem you're trying to solve, you know.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: And the other problem, of course, we're talking about safety
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: on the roads, and if we're not going to be
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  Speaker 1: looking at having dedicated by lanes and dedicated active transportation
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: and lanes. And again we're not talking about protected ones
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: even at this point, just dedicated ones. Taking away lanes
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  Speaker 1: from it. It's not taking these people off of the road.
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  Speaker 1: These these users still have to use the road. They
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: can't use sidewalks, although many do illegally, but bikes and
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: e bikes and scooters and the like will all still
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: be on our roads.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: There's a public safety question to it as well. John,
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: So you're you know, kinds of great points and just
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: to and just to go back to your previous question,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: and sorry that I started that a bit. Folks in
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: you know, it doesn't matter where you live, especially if
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: it's you know, suburban urban. There's folks in my ward,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: whether they live in the more congested areas or if
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: they're a little further out, they right to bikes. And
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: in fact, we've just had some we just had some
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: very challenging debates with respect to lane use and planning
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: that raised the issue of the lack of active transportation
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: infrastructure as being a reason to not proceed with one
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  Speaker 2: of the Premier's favorite hobby horses development. So you know,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: not only worsening the traffic congestion problem that you're pretending
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: to solve, but at the same time, you're making it
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: harder to develop land in the middle of a housing
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  Speaker 2: crisis because you don't have appropriate infrastructure in place to
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: support those developments in the places that they need to go.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Last question for you, because, as you said a lot
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: of times, the Premiere, this government likes to put out
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: something flashy and then try to fix it or massage
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: it a bit later on to make it actually work.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: It seems like this is obviously a wedge, obviously, but
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: one that is designed for an upcoming election. At the
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: same time that we're hearing that they're going to strip
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: away this ability from cities to go and install bike
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: lanes on their own, the Premier is also saying, or
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: the Transportation minister, excuse me, I'll be clear, speed limits
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: on all four hundred series highways are going to increase
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: to one hundred and ten kilometers an hour, But as well,
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  Speaker 1: the government is developing a new standard to allow vehicles
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: to travel at speeds higher than one hundred and twenty
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: kilometers an hour on new highways. It really seems like
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: this is a fight that's being set up between the
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: city at the core and the suburbs, between cars and cyclists.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: What do you think about that, Well.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Look, there's going to be I would hope a significant
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: amount of research that's undertaken as that those things are
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: being considered. But like, as far as you know this government,
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: you know, it's just less than a month ago that
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: we heard the asinine idea floated that there might be
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: a tunnel that would be constructed along the entire length
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: of along for across the parallel tho for one in
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: the in the GTA, without any without any costing, without
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: any without any forethought, just uh, just a statement of like, oh,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: we think this is going to be this is a
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: good idea because again, people can't get from one place
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  Speaker 2: because of the vehicular traffic congestion that's being created. I
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: don't have a lot of faith in this government's ability
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  Speaker 2: to come up with a coherent, cohesive, the logical transportation
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: plan for the Province of Ontario. That this proposal is
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: another perfect example of the Premier cominustry or they have
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: this government demonstrating a fundamental lack of understanding of the
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: issues and coming forward with something that is unresearched. Perhaps
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: sounds good and a sound like, but I think is
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: potentially disastrous for communities across Ontario and it's certainly not
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: going to be good for the winsor
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Well, just putting aside the whole issue of a bike lane,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I don't like the stripping away of autonomy from our
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: elected rep