Ouellette doubts highway "will ever get done"

Hwy 11 four-laning remains on track, and on schedule, Coun. Maureen Boldt said Nipissing MPP Monique Smith told her.

Boldt had contacted Smith in anticipation of a second deputation to council Monday night by Nicky Ouellette, whose husband Gerry and her four step-children were killed Nov. 30 in an accident Hwy 11, near South River.

Until 2011
Ouellette had been to council March 22 calling for the four-laning to be finished, and Coun. Dave Mendicino told her the Liberal government had confirmed the 2008 completion date set by the previous Conservative government.

But at a recent meeting of the Northeastern Ontario Mayors’ Action Group, a Transportation Ministry bureaucrat said it would take two years-plus—four years at the outside—to complete the land acquisition and engineering for the remaining 46 kilometres, and another two to three years to four-lane after that.

North Bay Mayor Vic Fedeli said following that meeting that it could take until 2011 to complete Hwy 11 four-laning based on that time frame.

Now has doubts
Ironically Nipissing MPP had been quoted in The Nugget Feb. 21 giving assurances four-laning would continue with the scheduled completion date being 2008.

Smith recently denied saying that, adding she has never mentioned any particular year.

Monday night Ouellette told council she now has doubts the highway work “will ever get done.”

“Who’s to say that a three-year delay does not become four or five? How many must die before the politicians get the picture and what value do they put on human life,” Ouellette said.

“I wonder what they actually care about when a family is taken from this earth and we still get delays in completing the highway that killed them. It seems to me that Monique Smith and others must walk a mile in my shoes and carry the grief and the broken heart before they have any understanding of what I’m going through and perhaps commit to completing this project.”

Farther than that
Ouellette also wondered why Smith did nothing immediately after the March 22 council meeting to correct any misconceptions.

“Why was it not denied at that point, why did she not come forward and say, ‘I’m sorry it’s not going to be 2008, we cannot confirm a date, it will be farther than that,’” Ouellette said.

“Her biggest thing is whether she said it or not, I really don’t care if she said it or not, I just want the highway done.”

See it on paper
Ouellette told council she had received a phone call from Smith earlier in the day.

“Her assuring me and making me a phone call doesn’t make me feel any better because tomorrow it could be 2024 for all I know,” Ouellette said.

“I want to see it on paper. I want a letter.”

Ouellette also said she’d heard the Liberals would be giving four-laning of Hwy 69 priority over Hwy 11.

Need a date
Coun. Mendicino commended Ouellette for coming to council a second time and said he was behind her in her quest.

“As much as the date’s been pushed back, I think we have to push back as a region, as a community,” Mendicino said.

“We want a date, we need a date, we deserve a date, for your reasons, for economic reasons, we need a date.”

Number one priority
Following the meeting Boldt said she spoke to Smith, who told her Hwy 11 four-laning “is on track, on schedule, the land acquisitions are underway and they’re continuing with the schedule of the prior government. There’s been no change.”

Boldt said Smith didn’t offer a specific date “because how can you just plug in a date?”

But Smith reassured Boldt seeing the four-laning through to completion “was her number one priority as an MPP.”

Council resolved to send letters to Smith and Premier Dalton McGuinty asking for that commitment in writing plus a completion date. The letters will also include a request for clarification of the Hwy 69 issue.