LET’S hope that when the dust settles from last week’s first budget from the new Liberal government in Ottawa, there’s some money for smaller municipalities and rural areas such as Terrace and Thornhill.
So far the increased spending promised for public works, or infrastructure as it’s now called, is all about big ticket items for large cities.
Another Skytrain line of some kind in Vancouver. Light rail in Surrey. Similar transit plans for Toronto.
For politicians spending money in big cities makes sense. That’s where the votes are and for the federal Liberals, urban seats won them a majority government.
But more rural areas count as well, perhaps not in a seat count but as locations in which its residents deserve as much consideration as someone living on the Lower Mainland.
There’s a worthy public transit project awaiting development here – a proper walking and cycling pathway connecting Thornhill and Terrace.
That pedestrians and cyclists now have to trudge or pedal along the dirt and gravelled side of Hwy16 between the two communities, particularly during the dark and bad weather periods from fall to spring, is abysmal. If there is to be any kind of ‘greening’ of the country, to improve quality of life, to encourage more people to get out of their cars, or to recognize that not everyone has a car in the first place, then this is a project worthy of consideration.