Do Brantford and Brant County’s elected officials have the ‘political will’ to improve transportation in both communities?
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That’s a question both elected councils will have to answer following a recent city-county joint services committee meeting.
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The committee, at an April 25 meeting, voted to add improved transportation routes to its agenda.
The recommendation will soon come before Brant County Council and Brantford City Council for approval or rejection.
“This is something that’s extremely important to us in the city,” Brantford Mayor Kevin Davis said at the joint services meeting. “But I know that this issue is just as important here in the county because you’re experiencing the same kind of issues and to really solve this problem we have to take some radical, bold departures from what we’ve been doing.”
Davis said it’s hard for city and county staff to make the bold suggestions without the political will to follow through on their proposals.
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Getting the issue on the agenda of the joint-services committee is an attempt to improve transportation routes that flow through both communities, Davis said.
“This is an attempt to gauge the political will, to put it on the table to decide if we want to take bold action or not,” Davis said.
Some Brant County councilors including Robert Chambers and Mayor David Bailey, voted against the recommendation. But others, including Coun. John Bell supported the idea.
“A lot of people who live in the county, work in the city,” Bell said. “They would benefit greatly from improved access and transportation.
“I think residents would expect that we work together, particularly for those people who do cross the boundary multiple times daily not just for working but for shopping or recreation.”
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The issue was brought to the committee by Brantford Coun. Rose Sicoli, who provided a list of transportation routes that, if improved, would certainly help out city residents. Her list, which was included in the recommendation passed by the committee, includes extension of Shellard Lane from the city boundary to Rest Acres Road.
Sicoli’s list also includes extension of Conklin Road to Highway 403 along Phelps Road/County Road 18 and Garden Avenue corridors. As well, the resolution includes alternate routes for the extension of the Brantford Southern Access Corridor from the southern terminus of Oak Park Road through and to Forced Road.
Chambers said improved transportation networks come down to a couple of key questions – who pays and how much.
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County residents could end up paying for something that doesn’t benefit them, Chambers said.
“In fairness, many of those paying the bills would not have the service and that has always been the problem with public transportation in rural areas,” Chambers said. “The geography and distance becomes uneconomical for the service that’s provided.
“It’s a simple matter of who pays, how much they pay and whether they should pay for it or not.”
Meanwhile, the joint services committee also decided to take physician recruitment off its list of areas to examine as part of their work.
At present, the county has its own physician recruitment program underway to help attract doctors to the Cowan Community Health Hub in Paris.
Originally established in March 2017, the joint services committee looked at areas of concern including transportation strategies, parks, healthcare and emergency services.
Efforts to re-establish the committee began in the fall of 2023 with the goal of looking for ways to collaborate on services such as household hazardous waste, public transit and economic development and tourism.
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