Northumberland County – County Committee Scramble to Get Project Back on the Rails

By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland

An incidental question during a telephone call with the Ministry of Transportation brought out important information for Bob Sanderson – the province erroneously believes that Northumberland County is no longer interested in seeing Go Transit services extended this far east of Toronto.

Given the enthusiasm with which the county had negotiated for exactly that purpose, Sanderson said at this week’s meeting of Northumberland County council’s standing Economic Development, Tourism and Land Use Planning Standing Committee, he was taken aback.

“It was a total surprise, quite frankly, and absolutely unfounded from what I can tell,” the committee chair allowed.

The information came in a telephone discussion of the Toronto Road overpass and the property where the Welcome Inn formerly stood (which has since been demolished). The Canadian Fire Fighters Museum has expressed an interest in locating on a portion of that property, and the discussion had ensued.

It was strictly in the nature of an aside that Sanderson asked about the status of the county’s efforts to encourage MetroLinks to extend the Go service to Northumberland. He hadn’t heard of any progress lately. The ministry representative said the matter had been put aside since Northumberland no longer had any interest in the project.

In light of that, Sanderson felt it was urgent to reaffirm the county’s interest in obtaining this service.

Chief Administrative Officer Jennifer Moore said county staff had been involved in those conversations about accessing these transit services.

“They have done some studies and worked closely with MetroLinks, and can probably provide some significant insight into what those discussions have been – and they were very surprised,” Moore said.

“Maybe what we might want to consider is, we have until Nov. 15 to submit a delegation request at ROMA,” Director of Economic Development, Planning and Strategic Initiatives Dan Borowec said, referring to the Rural Ontario Municipal Association.

“This makes sense from a position to reaffirm our commitment to MetroLinks activity to the ministry. Maybe we can put that together.”

The important thing, Borowec, said, is “making sure it hasn’t fallen off the table.”

Sanderson was mystified how it might have been decided that Northumberland had withdrawn from the project.

Warden Bob Crate expressed his opinion that it wasn’t a matter of Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini dropping the ball.

“There’s some problem coming from a different source,” Crate figured.

The motion passed by the committee calls for a further discussion at the county council meeting on Nov. 17.