Last night I had some canvassers knock on my door and ask me if I would answer a few questions about the Heartland Transmission Project.
Still smarting from the fiasco of the tree clearing and the Anthony Henday Drive engineering debacle behind my residence, I asked the two women to leave the questionnaire with me and I would fill it out in the next few days and send it in. I was told that was not possible.
Their supervisor (a middle-aged gentleman who could not provide me with a business card) then came to their defence and also stated that my concerns would have to be dealt with immediately on my doorstep, and I could not take the time to fill out the questionnaire at my leisure in my own home.
Here again is “public consultation and feedback” at it’s best (or worst). They really do not want to hear our concerns; in fact, I was told if I didn't answer the questions they were asking that evening I would be counted as one of the resident's that “waived” my concerns.
The public forums held this past year on the ring road project were merely a show to try and tell us, the citizens bordering the freeway expansion, that they were listening to our concerns. They weren’t and they lied.
The ring road is closer now to the residents of Akinsdale than in the original form, even though government will try and tell you they spent millions more to purchase the St. Joseph’s Seminary and Newman College to take it further away from residents. That simply is not the case.
Now, we are supposed to think that the government wants our feedback on the “proposed” Heartland Project?
I outlined my concerns about the “clear them on Friday and they won't complain 'til Monday” tree destruction to Alberta Transportation Minister Luke Ouellette. His reply on May 7, 2009 read, “The purpose of the transportation utility corridor (TUC) is to accommodate the construction of the Edmonton ring road and also to accommodate existing and future utilities.” And he also stated, “At the time of the open house meeting in October 2008, it would not have been possible to guarantee that no further trees would need to be removed.”
So do you think they have already made their mind up on where the new transmission lines are going?
Read the minister’s comments again carefully ... we can't guarantee anything in a public forum and the TUC behind Akinsdale is there to accommodate “future utilities.”
Randy Collins, St. Albert
