Port Alberni Mayor Sharie Minions and many council members have been in Vancouver this week at the annual Union of BC Municipalities convention.
Minions said she met with Premier David Eby and talked about the highway shutdown this summer, and received assurance that the province will invest in an emergency alternate route out of town.
“We know that there’s been significant work already done on the Horne Lake connector,” she said. “Additionally there’s the Comox Road and the Cowichan – Bamfield Road and all three of those will be looked at, evaluated, and then come back for community feedback as well as First Nations engangement to look at which would make the most sense to be our designated emergency route.”
Minions also met with the Minister of Transportation to discuss improvements to Highway 4 through Cathedral Grove and along Cameron Lake.
So here we go again looking at two other long roads to nowhere, Comox Trail or the Youbow cart path.
I wish our mayor and the government would realize that the only short, sensible, viable emergency or permanent route of any real value to our community and the west Coast is one of the Horne Lake connectors.
They have all studied to death (and there have been deaths on both the other routes) and there will be more on the existing highway 4 no matter what they eventually try and do to improve it.
Angel Rock and Cathedral Grove can not be improved enough to be reliable or safe.
Why do people keep pushing the Horn Lake connector? It’s access is via Loon Lake. So we have a fire by the Coombs country candy now both routes are blocked I think that is the dumbest idea ever. Do people not think?