BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) officials had been pressing to change the lanes leading towards the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge along Main Street in North Vancouver District.
District staff have been pushing back, asking them not to do this. But it’s happening anyway, and the timing of this change is suspicious. On Saturday, September 21, the Provincial Election Writ dropped, and our MLAs ceased to be MLAs and are currently only candidates. As candidates, they can no longer access Provincial Ministry Staff to advocate for citizens.
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So what is happening? As of now, there are three lanes eastbound along Main Street. One lane is for buses, another for Dollarton and traffic and one provides access to the bridge. MOTI wants to dedicate two lanes to bridge traffic, leaving no lane for Dollarton or through traffic at all.
The approximately 24,000 people who live east of the Seymour River will be stuck in bridge traffic along Main Street even though they want nothing to do with the bridge. But even if there are two lanes dedicated to bridge traffic, they still collapse down to one lane which has a traffic light that alternates between the Main Street onramp and the Dollarton (westbound) on ramp.
The other option for Dollarton/Seymour people is to try to get to the northern route–Keith Road, which is also one lane along most of the Keith Road corridor, especially for through traffic to Mount Seymour Parkway.
So, on Monday morning, after we “lost our MLA’s”, MOTI Officials contacted DNV Staff and reported that these changes are going through immediately and the work will be complete before the election day of October 19. They are ignoring DNV pleas to the contrary. DNV staff came to members of Council and asked them to help because “MOTI was not listening”.
People on both sides of the Seymour River are all upset about this but there doesn’t seem to be anyone to talk to. DNV Staff and Council are already on the people’s side. Our current two MLA’s – Susie Chant in Seymour and Bowinn Ma in Lonsdale are not MLAs at the moment, and people don’t know how to contact them. Meanwhile, it seems that MOTI officials are not responding to emails, media enquiries or even DNV Council.
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There are social media reports that the two NDP MLAs–Ma and Chant– were also “blind-sided” by this MOTI move and it’s easy to predict that this will detrimentally affect their election chances. Competitors in Seymour – Conservative Candidate Sam Chandola and Independent Candidate Mitch Baker have been quick to provide their critiques and suggestions online and to media outlets.
One immediately wonders what MLA’s Ma and Chant did to deserve getting thrown “under the proverbial bus” like this by MOTI staff? It’s hard to figure out why MOTI have done this. Certainly, the people’s only option it seems is to express their displeasure at the ballot box on election day, October 19.
DNV Councillor Lisa Muri, the one who broke this news to the public through her Facebook page on Tuesday morning, said that “autocratic decision-making and lack of consultation appear to be a hallmark of the David Eby-led BC Government”. It seems Mr. Eby’s chickens have no place to roost on October 19 other than in the ballot box of Ms. Ma’s and Ms. Chant’s political competition.
So how do people get their views known to MOTI officials? This is why we created a petition on Change.org. For my part, I have never even signed such a petition online. Still, I have never been at a loss to convey my opinions to my elected representatives at any level of Government. But right now, there are thousands upon thousands of North Vancouver residents who might be disenfranchised because they might be a little reluctant to sit down and write to express their concerns to the BC Minister of Transport Rob Fleming and his staff.
It is for those people that we have created this petition. It is a petition to ask MOTI to reverse course and stop these unilateral changes to Main Street. It is a petition to give a voice to those who might not have it in them to write to the Minister of Transportation.
I went from never having signed one of these change.org petitions to creating my first one and signing it myself. That was Tuesday in the late afternoon. It’s now Thursday morning and over 1,400 other people have added their names to the appeal to MOTI to “stop drop and roll”. You are invited to join our call by adding your name to the petition at http://www.change.org/
Peter Teevan is a local citizen who has been actively engaged with the North Vancouver District for several years and has served on the board of the Seymour Community Association and the North Vancouver Community Association Network Board.
My curiosity is surely piqued and I can think of 3 scenarios.
1, MOTI holds a grudge—and not just any grudge, but the kind that might tip the scales for rival candidates. Sam and Baker, naturally, would love to turn this into political gold. Yet they may not realize that even the most proactive MLAs, like Bowinn Ma, are often reduced to spectators in the face of the sprawling, immovable force that is bureaucracy. The beast, after all, cares little for ambition.
2, The strategic delay—MLAs, keenly aware of the political fallout, might urge MOTI to hold off on a decision until they’re back to being mere candidates, rather than sitting MLAs. This allows them to play the “helpless” card, while the lane adjustments quietly occur behind the scenes. It sounds cynical, sure, but if you believe politicians are above such backroom maneuvering, I admire your optimism—naivety, even.
3, MOTI officials don’t give a feck—which, as the Irish say, can mean they’re happy, irritated, or anything in between. One thing’s for sure: indifference is a powerful stance, especially when you hold all the cards.
Only until election day…the ball is in our court
See? Gary gets “it” 😉
And 1, 2 or 3…. It could be all three!
We all ‘get it’, Peter. You sound like a shill for BC Conservatives and are using this awful decision by MOTI to fuel political attacks on Ma and Chant. Anyone who has dealt with bureaucrats knows they can be rigid and are prone to make unilateral decisions. So entrenched are their unions that they don’t fear consequences from their political masters, who also must depend on staff to navigate the maze of bureaucracy. We need strong leaders who can at least sound tough before local and provincial staff and have some stick to wave if they have no carrot to offer.
As for the alternative on the North Shore, I invite you to imagine full-of-themselves tech bros like Sam Chandola trying to argue with hardened MOTI staff to reverse decisions. Will they care, or will he run to his soon-to-be-senile leader to discipline wayward staff? It’s incredible to me how people you have never heard of crawl out of the woodwork to run for MLA. Do they really care about the community or do they just want to decorate their CV with the words MLA and enjoy the trappings of power in Victoria.
I would like to know what the powers to be will not do to make things worse than they already are.
A long standing NDP who will be impacted by this stupid move……..you don’t care about the people of Seymour, why should I vote for you again??????
Why should I vote for you if you don’t care about the residents of Seymour? Who are you catering to? Traffic on the north shore is horrendous right now. When both bridges are backed up it can take hours to travel from Park Royal to Deep Cove. We have/had two caring MLAs on the north shore, let’s keep them.
We need 2 more crossings ( bridges) off the north shore. Stop thinking about votes and start thinking about the people. Our time is valuable. Sitting in traffic every day is wrong. Stop the building of north shore fix the roads and infrastructure and water problems then continue with a working plan.
Fire the lot. Get people who care in. A good idea is a good idea no matter who thinks of it.
Well thought out method to slide a move like this.
Inappropriate smoke and mirrors tactic.
No transparency or public consultation.
Just say no to NDP on election day.
Your vote matters – We need solutions to traffic and other problems!
Continuing with the same old bandage approach of throwing more money
into various projects without economic consequences has been the norm.
Residents can not afford the continuing deficit facing all of us in B. C.
Strategic planning with an economic focus is needed.
Reducing the lanes for my neighbours in mount Seymours access to the Bridge
requires a major push back from DNV/CNV and residents of the north shore.
Your vote matters – We need solutions to traffic and other problems!
Continuing with the same old bandage approach of throwing more money
into various projects without economic consequences has been the norm.
Residents can not afford the continuing deficit facing all of us in B. C.
We have too many people coming here, period!!!!!
We have no infrastructure to keep up. Stop allowing so many people here, at least until infrastructure can keep up.
definitely need a new bridge. better infrastructure going through the area up the hill and slow driver staying out of the left lane intentionally holding up flow of traffic. so better reinforcement
If they make any changes , they should put a barrier up between center and right lane so people can’t cut in, blocking Dollarton traffic, if they choose to take Dollarton lane they have to enter at next entrance to bridge.
They should not be jumping the queue, blocking everyone else from getting home!
It’s a terrible idea. Notice how MOTI waited until the MLA’s were in campaign mode and unable to do anything to stop it? This move is probably related to the squirrely way Phibbs Exchange was rebuilt too.
The MOTI-crats have no ideas that can improve the bridge lineup? Fine. We are used to it. It sucks but it is not likely to get better until one day when the Ironworkers’ bridge is replaced. Simply deleting a lane of through traffic people need to get to Dollarton is insane. No, forcing them to go through more long and convoluted nonsense, especially the heavy cargo trucks will make things 10 times worse.
This is like when Translink wanted West Van to take away a lane of traffic through Ambleside/Dundarave, with no grasp of the paralysis that would cause over there.