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The road to economic development

Editor: One on-going challenge at all levels of government is the need to balance economic development with environmental protection and our overall quality of life. Each Sechelt mayoral candidate recently acknowledged this.

 

Editor:

One on-going challenge at all levels of government is the need to balance economic development with environmental protection and our overall quality of life. Each Sechelt mayoral candidate recently acknowledged this.

Transportation is a key element of our standard of living.

According to the District of Sechelt Survey (2013), citizens who did not rate Sechelt as a good place to live are more concerned about roads, highways and traffic (nine per cent) than the lack of jobs (six per cent).

While there has been much ado about the ferry connection and airport development, mention of the previously discussed Sechelt bypass has been conspicuously absent. This is surprising given that the transportation master plan (2009) predicted that by 2015, the existing highway will reach practical capacity.

Traffic congestion is increasing. Ideas such as the building of a super highway such as that on Vancouver Island ignore the reality of our geography: we inhabit a narrow ribbon of land at the base of a mountain. Sechelt is a bottleneck. The building of an alternative highway will be detrimental to the ambiance of our town and will divert business away from our core.

It is vital that our politicians consider infrastructure first.

A modern strategy for economic development focuses on qualitative changes rather “more is better.” This seems like our best approach as we move forward.

Richard Carton, Sechelt