To better understand what this project is, and what its effects might be, Mayday Magazine spoke with Monte Dennis of the group Citizens Opposed to Paving the Escarpment (COPE). COPE formed shortly after the Mid-Pen was first announced, as “just a handful of individuals with a passion for the Niagara Escarpment,” Dennis recalls. It has since grown to over 1, 000 members, and is a key part of Stop Escarpment Highways Coalition that boasts a membership of 4, 000.
The current intention is for the Mid-Pen to begin in both Fort Erie and Niagara falls, like a two-pronged fork. These prongs would converge and follow Highway 20 through Smithville and into Hamilton, then go from the end of the Lincoln Alexander Parkway past Highway 403 into Flamborough. It would then cut down through Burlington to join Highway 407, by way of what has been dubbed the Asphalt Arrow.
The Asphalt Arrow appeared on the provincial Ministry of Transportations revision of the Halton Region’s official plan as
a large arrow drawn over the Escarpment near Tremain Road in Burlington, just East of the Mount Nemo Conservation Area. Stopping the Asphalt Arrow has been one of COPE’s most immediate concerns, and one that has had much success.
However, the Asphalt Arrow is only one small part of this project, and COPE considers the entire plan to be fundamentally flawed. One of their key criticisms is, as with the Aerotropolis, the use of agricultural land.
“No matter where they put this, it will involve ripping up more farmland” Dennis says. “If we tear up the farmland, we will need to ship more of our food in from elsewhere. ...We have to be concerned about future agricultural food supply. If you look at a map from Fort Erie to Hamilton, the planned route follows highway 20, through Smithville. ...Smithville is heavily involved in poultry production, and those people grow their own feed. Wipe out the land used for that and you’ve taken out a part of the food supply.”
COPE specifically opposes any more cuts through the Niagara Escarpment, such as was done for the Redhill Expressway, and what plans for the Mid-Pen would require. “...This unique thing called the Niagara Escarpment is a UNESCO world heritage site,” Dennis says. “It would be embarrassing as a nation if we had to say, ‘we had one, but we tore it all up.’”
He explains further, “protecting the escarpment is very important. Most folks don’t realize that it’s a major source of water. If we cut through it, we eliminate that water supply. I don’t live in the area, but it seems that the Red Hill Expressway floods every time it rains. I imagine that before the ecological system could handle the water, but now it’s just a culvert and it can’t. When you cut through the Escarpment, you are inviting fast runoff. Water runs off rather than entering the water table.”
It’s not just a question of better planning for highways. COPE emphasizes the need for a balanced transportation system. “COPE maintains that no more highways are needed, period,” says Dennis. “We need to improve mass transit systems and put a lot of these trucks on the rail system. ...[The Mid-Pen] plan doesn’t take into account peak oil. What will the automobile look like in fifty years? They say they’re looking ahead, but this is just 1950s planning. Just plow the land and build a highway. Surely we can be more creative than that.”
Many politicians and governments are in favour of the Mid-Pen plan. It was the Ministry of Transportation under the McGuinty government that revived this plan, and Provincial Conservative leader Tim Hudak is committed to making it happen if elected.
COPE protested Hudak’s recent speaking event in Flamborough for the Chamber of Commerce. Dennis explains, “The Chamber of Commerce has come out in favour of [the Mid-Pen], but in COPE ,we have many business people as well who are opposed to the highway. Some of them live near the Escarpment and oppose it for that reason, but many others don’t believe that it will create jobs.”
The rhetoric around jobs coming from Hudak and the Ministry of Transportation rings hollow in Hamilton, as Stelco, Stoney Creek Dairy, and other long-time, stable employers close their doors and lay-off their workers. And yet the Hamilton municipal government is also quietly supporting the Mid-Pen, hoping that it will help create jobs in the Aerotropolis and in the other, largely empty business parks in that area.
Both the Aerotropolis and the Mid-Pen are disastrously short-sighted projects that do not value our long-term needs, like the quality of our water, the sustainability of our food systems, and the realities of resource depletion. When politicians and bureaucrats prioritize the short-term needs of the economic system over everything else, they are acting against the interests of the people they claim to represent. We must organize in our communities to defend and to demand what we know we need.
Demonstrating this, on February 15th, we received news from COPE that one of their most urgent demands has been met: the Ministry of Transporation has withdrawn plans for the Asphalt Arrow. To quote the Stop Escarpment Highways Coalition press release: “The SEHC group believes that the rapid formation of the citizen’s coalition representing over 4, 000 members, an aggressive opposition campaign and close collaboration with local politicians showed the province that they had made a mistake.”
For more information about COPE and about the campaign against the Mid-Pen, visit http://www.cope-nomph.org/
