Brighter future for Sault if railway were fast-tracked
Written by jrood
Where there's a will there isn't always a way, if the way in question is a railway, said Toms Mills in a column in the Sault Star. Both the federal and provincial governments are apparently solidly behind providing money for infrastructure improvements to keep the shortline railway operating between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury. Sault Star But though signals are showing green, the money is stalled on a siding somewhere. Squabbling over what program will be the funding vehicle, or whether the province will sign on to a federal cost-sharing infrastructure scheme, seems to be holding things up.
This procedural wrangling
threatens to scuttle the infrastructure improvement plans, and ultimately the
railroad itself. And there’s very little time to resolve the situation. Sault
Chief Administrative Officer Joe Fratesi said this week that the shortline
railway committee believes the project is "at the 11-and-three-quarter
hour now."
If the railway dies, it
will make it more difficult for existing industries such as Essar Steel to get
their products to market. It will mean more trucks on Highway 17. It will mean
one more reason for new industries to bypass the Sault.
And if you believe
financial guru Warren Buffett, railways are going to be invaluable in years to
come when fuel prices soar. When that happens, the Sault won’t have a railway,
or at least not one heading into southern and eastern Canada.
Federal and provincial
politicians are famously addicted to rhetoric, but the shortline railway isn’t
going to run on hot air. Unless they abandon their debate in the bar car and
shovel some coal into the boiler, this train is going nowhere.
Wouldn’t it be nice if
our governments set aside their usual practice of trying to fit the square pegs
of local problems into the round holes of existing government programs and
instead found ways to make those programs resolve crises?
City council has sent a
letter to the federal and provincial ministers responsible. If Sault MP Tony
Martin and Sault MPP David Orazietti aren’t already redoubling their efforts to
impress people in Ottawa and Toronto with the urgency of the situation, they
should be.
