Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors will seek a meeting with the provincial transportation minister to air concerns about the department extending its five-year highway service contracts for the region without public input.
And the cyclist advocacy group Transportation Choices (TraC) has called for a meeting with MLA Nicholas Simons to address the same concern.
"TraC feels strongly that there is a serious democratic deficit at play here," Mark Lebbell of TraC said in a letter to Simons. "Long-suffering Sunshine Coast cyclists are tired of what few bike paths there are on the Coast being dangerously covered in detritus. Our patience has been rewarded by what seems like a duplicitous lack of public process."
In the letter, Lebbell said his group had been lobbying for years to have input in the maintenance specifications for highway contracts and had been assured in writing by a previous transportation minister that consultation would occur.
The issue was raised in late February at an SCRD transportation advisory committee meeting by TraC president Martin Prestage. At the committee's June 24 meeting, a letter from Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) district manager Brian Atkins confirmed the maintenance contracts had been extended to 2018/19.
"While we appreciate the concern you have expressed about the extensions being provided without the benefit of any input from the SCRD or other local stakeholders," Atkins wrote board chair Garry Nohr, "we want to ensure you that we continue to be committed to working with you to address stakeholders' concerns."
Atkins said the contracts' maintenance specifications were extended under the existing terms, but noted the Ministry's contractor, Capilano Highway Services, "reviews sweeping plans annually and works with local stakeholders to identify appropriate times for sweeping and local improvements to the infrastructure to minimize the amount of debris being tracked into the cycling lanes."
Responding to the letter at the June 24 meeting, Nohr called for a face-to-face meeting with the new MOTI minister, Todd Stone, at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities fall convention.
"Somehow I don't think this is being taken as seriously as some people on the Coast would like it to be," Nohr said.
MOTI area manager Don Legault told the committee there are two different standards for sweeping under the maintenance contract, with urban areas such as Gibsons and Sechelt swept three times a year and rural areas once a year.
"That doesn't mean we don't do it more often," Legault said.
Tyler Lambert, manager of roads for Capilano Highway Services, concurred. "Last year there were portions of the road swept seven or eight times," he said.
Meanwhile, Prestage reported the preliminary results of TraC's third Bike to Work Week, held May 27 to June 2.
"Despite appalling weather, the numbers still keep rising," he told the committee.
The number of teams rose this year by 40 per cent to 86 teams, five elementary schools took part (up from two the previous year) and the level of sponsorship also increased, Prestage reported.
"It was a great week, apart from getting wet," he said.
TraC is also compiling an online inventory of road hazards for cyclists. For more information, see the group's website at www.transportationchoices.ca.
