The Cochrane Eagle is asking candidates an issue-based question each week leading up to the election that they will answer in their own words. If a candidate does not answer a question, we will include a bio box with a disclaimer saying the candidate did not respond. All candidates were given a limit of 185 words and questions will be edited to fit that length. Our third question is:
How do you plan to address the town’s growing traffic congestion?
This is my most impassioned subject and a critical issue to be handled over the next four years. Tens of thousands of residents are about to be added to Cochrane and the surrounding area over the next decade and our traffic congestion issues are going to get much worse before they get better. It’s paramount that we:
1) Slow our residential growth approvals to give us a chance to catch up on our infrastructure.
2) Appeal effectively for provincial assistance to finally approve funding for the twinning of our two highways.
3) Prioritize interior town road expansion and traffic flow solutions (the one factor we control as a council) including a underpass to deal with train crossing bottlenecks endemic to our downtown core.
4) Do this within budgetary restrictions without raising taxes or ballooning debt.
This will involve trade-offs and delaying of other town “wish list” items; predictably a fact that seems avoided in a lot of recent discussion.
