The Implications

The Terms of Reference of this study are now in the hands of the Minister of Environment for Ontario, the Hon. John Gerretsen. The Ministry of the Environment (MOE) typically rubber stamps these Terms of Reference. If approved the study will roll on for years with the following implications:

• More Ontario taxpayers money will be wasted.
• The obvious illegality of the road will be challenged by the SMART coalition. Again this wastes taxpayers money and puts an unfair burden on ordinary citizens to correct MTO’s out of control behaviour.
• The legal system, at it’s best, is still a lottery. It is possible that this study could progress with the result that a road is put through rural Puslinch. This will not solve Cambridge’s congestion, it will lead to urban sprawl – ruining this quiet country township.
• Puslinch contains part of one of the most significant moraines in Ontario, the Galt-Paris Moraine. This moraine provides clean drinking water to many thousands of residents in the region and is a significant contributor to the quality of water in the Grand River. Urban sprawl will strangle the moraine and the risk of contamination from spills and road salt is simply unacceptable.

The timing is critical, we have only a few weeks to persuade the Minister to refute this study. Mr Minister, please avoid unnecessary litigation and the major embarrassment to the Ontario Liberals of having one of it’s Ministries ignore it’s own policies.

Help us to stop this folly before it goes any further.