Editor:
I read the letters on Friday that opposed the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure’s proposal for changes to Highway 101. The writers feared potential disruptions to the Roberts Creek community and environment. Their objections are solid, but they missed a broader issue and so has MOTI. We need a new route, not only along the Coast but also to Vancouver.
The Sunshine Coast is changing rapidly with population increases and younger families who have fled exorbitant real estate costs in Vancouver. The newcomers, along with our long-term population, travel to the Lower Mainland for work, shopping, and pleasure. This has increased congestion on both the ferries and the highway to Langdale. Those who live in Sechelt and beyond need an alternate route to get off the Coast in an emergency.
MOTI should address both needs at once by reviving the idea of a bridge and by connecting it with the highway near Sechelt. The Sechelt Dakota Forest Service Road runs into Selma Park from just south of Port Mellon. Converting it to a highway would forgo the community disruptions to Roberts Creek the letter writers cited.
Yes, there would be environmental issues, but the forest has already absorbed much of the impact in the previous cut-through of the logging road.
A bridge crossing Howe Sound near Woolridge Island would connect the highway with the Lower Mainland and ameliorate the unending problems from late and cancelled ferries.
B.C. needs to plan for the future, not the past. Planning such a project would take a few years at least, and economists worldwide predict an economic downturn by then. A bridge-highway project would create needed employment in the predicted recession. Our next premier should act on a bridge-highway plan on the first day in office.
Elizabeth Rains
Langdale
