Traffic dominates East Woodbridge, regional debate

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 11, 2014
By Tim Kelly

Cars, trucks and transit dominated debate and discussion during an East Woodbridge and regional councillors all-candidates forum Thursday evening.

The event, organized by a number of ratepayers’ groups but chiefly run by the Weston Downs Ratepayers group, saw questions from the audience deal primarily with local concerns.

The top item on the menu was the intensity and constant growth and flow of traffic and how the nine candidates who turned up - three of five local hopefuls for Ward 3 East Woodbridge and six of seven regional council candidates - will target it if elected Oct. 27.

Everybody had ideas for what they would or could do and some suggested, especially when the issue involved a regional road, there was very little that could actually be done.

When such ward-specific issues as extending Pine Valley Drive all the way from Langstaff Road to Rutherford Road or taking back Langstaff from the Region of York to the City of Vaughan came up, different candidates made different promises.

“I am in support of putting Pine Valley all the way through,” said regional candidate Carrie Liddy.

She added that traffic is bad throughout wards 1 (Maple/Kleinberg), 2 (West Woodbridge) and 3.

"These roads have not been properly planned. We have an exceedingly high volume of flow-through traffic. We have cars coming from outside of Vaughan and they’re going to outside of Vaughan. The first thing we have to do is redirect the tens of thousands of cars a day that cut through our neighbourhoods and make our streets unsafe for children around Vaughan. We need to connect 427 and 400 in the north,” she said. Liddy called for 427 to be extended “all the way to Hwy 9 in the north.

Candidate Richard Lorello framed traffic as “very comprehensive, not piecemeal, not one-offs".

“It’s something I’ll look at...but we have so many roads in Vaughan that just end...Teston, Kirby, Langstaff and yes, Pine Valley. We need to accommodate cars, transit, cyclists, and pedestrians and that’s the way I’ll look at things,” he said.

Deputy mayor and regional councillor Gino Rosati gave a brief history of the problems with the Pine Valley extension, explaining that the extension plan had been rejected and that development charges were not in place to put in through in future.

“We approved it, it was appealed to the province, it was defeated there...it was a blow, we were counting on that extension and therefore it’s not there any more. We have to look at it (traffic) globally,” he said.

Regional councillor Deb Shulte, who opposed the extension before she was elected in 2010, said the “province took a look at the information that was brought forward, they (province) made a decision that the environmental impact was not worth the cost of putting that road through. The cost and the impact was not something they (province) would be prepared to entertain.”

She said, “we continue to develop, but we haven’t got the infrastructure we need. All of you think the answer is the Pine Valley extension, it isn’t, the answer is a whole of other infrastructure that is needed to be implemented.”

Local candidate Lorenzo Catuzza said while environmental issues are contentious, “we can’t afford in this city to get bogged down in a fight over just one road. It may come in the future we have to look at it very seriously. We also are choking on the traffic in our city… let’s do the roadwork that can change how the city can work along the regional roads.”

East Woodbridge councillor Rosanna DeFrancesca said she believes it’s important to look at all the options.

“Right now, we have other options that we are pursuing. We have funding from the province on the 427 extension, it’s only to Major Mackenzie, but it’s a start and we have to start somewhere. We have the 400, it’s a serious barrier and we have to create connections, east and west for our community to reach out to the other side of the community. We have to create connections, whether pedestrian or vehicular to ease the pressure,” she said.

Local council candidate Francisco Ferraro said he feels it’s important to look at opening Pine Valley eventually.

“Some of the traffic issues could be addressed in a simple manner. People usually look at complicated matters to solve problems. More policing on our roads, so people behave a little bit better would help... adjusting the traffic signals at some intersections would help too,” said Ferraro.

Regional councillor Michael Di Biase said the Pine Valley extension is “very unlikely” to happen. He said part of the area is "Greenbelted” and another part belongs to the Toronto Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) “and they’re (TRCA) are not going to give up any land.”

On the other hand, he touted improvements such as the widening of Major Mackenzie Drive, a study of Langstaff Road to be extended over the CN tracks, and other road extensions.

“There are a number of roads being joined across the city for better traffic and circulation,” he added.

Regional council candidate Mario Ferri said “traffic is a major issue throughout. We have to look at all the issues to resolve it. If we don’t resolve it, the issues will continue. We need to look at a comprehensive approach. We need more transit, more buses,more GO Trains, more stations.”

He said once all the above improvements have been made, then the Pine Valley extension could be looked into.

On at least one other issue, all the candidates were in full agreement: They all said they would vote no if Vaughan were once again asked to be a willing host for a casino.

The vote failed 5-4 last year.