Blame Bob Simpson for Cariboo Connector delays
Drove the Cariboo Connector last week.
During a stop in Prince George recently, Highways Minister Todd Stone announced that within a couple of years, close to 50 per cent of 440-kilometre stretch of Highway 97 between Prince George and Cache Creek, the Cariboo Connector, will be either three lanes or four lanes.
Four-laning the stretch of road was a Gordon Campbell announcement prior to the 2006 provincial election. That promise, of course, had no timeframe attached to it.
However, that doesn’t mean the Liberals haven’t been plunking away at it, especially after they decided that three-laning in many spots will do just fine.
Making the drive south gave me the opportunity to take advantage of the work. It starts right here in Prince George with the newly-twinned Simon Fraser bridge, which now seems so natural we tend to forget that not too long ago it was a narrow choke-point coming into the city. Going south the highway is now four-laned past Sintich Road, almost to the Old Cariboo Highway. The massive earth-moving project that was the Red Rock scales is now complete and more four-lane spots have been added.
This summer work will begin on four-laning Highway 97 between Stone Creek and Williams Road, a three-kilometre stretch from the Red Rock scales to the Stone Creek Bridge. The work also will include replacing the Red Rock, CN overhead to accommodate the new highway. The new overhead will be 5.5 metres, allowing for greater clearance for large trucks.
Further south, the highway is almost completely four-laned from 100 Mile House to 70 Mile House. Four-laning work is underway from 74 Mile to 72 Mile and it be complete the 50-kilometre stretch between the two communities. In addition, that stretch of road qualifies for the new 110km/h speed limit.
While the new roadwork was great, there was one thing that struck me as I drove south.
The lion’s share of the Cariboo Connector work has been done from Stone Creek north. As soon as you hit the “Welcome to the Cariboo Regional District” sign, the major renos to Highway 97 seem to be, well, less than further north or further south.
As I pondered the reason, my overly cynical and suspicious mind fixated on the fact the Cariboo North riding was held by Bob Simpson prior to the last election. Simpson was elected as a New Democrat and after a falling out with the NDP, sat as an independent.
Could the fact the riding was not held by a Liberal have anything to do with the dearth of Cariboo Connector projects? In fairness, the four-laning of Highway 97 between Dragon Lake Road and Quartz Road south of Quesnel is underway (Cariboo North elected Liberal Coralee Oakes last time around).
Have the Liberals been playing favourites? I would like to think not, but politicians of all stripes always tell us that it’s better to a representative on the government side of the house.
The Cariboo-Chilcotin and Fraser-Nicola ridings, through which the connector also runs, both elected Liberals last time around (Donna Barnett and Jackie Tegart, respectively). Prior to that, they were held by New Democrats (Charlie Wyse and Harry Lali, respectively), so it’s hard to tell.
Shirley Bond has held the Prince George-Valemount riding since the Cariboo Connector was announced and, driving south it’s apparent more Cariboo Connector work has been done in Prince George-Valemount riding than the other three ridings. Maybe that just means Bond is a more effective MLA.
Whatever the reason, we can probably all agree that blaming Bob Simpson works, especially now that he’s the mayor of Quesnel.
Bill Phillips is a freelance columnist living in Prince George. He was the winner of the 2009 Best Editorial award at the British Columbia/Yukon Community Newspaper Association’s Ma Murray awards, in 2007 he won the association’s Best Columnist award. In 2004, he placed third in the Canadian Community Newspaper best columnist category and, in 2003, placed second. He can be reached at billphillips1@mac.com
Comments
Good red herring there Bill. I’ve also noticed that Hwy 16 west has been improved once the Liberals got in there as well.
Don’t people know how government works? Of course MPs and MLAs within the caucus have more pull than those of other party’s. This has always been the case, those who have a representative within caucus can lobby to have their section done at the head of the que. There is no mystery here or “red herring” – that is just life. Want your area to have representation then vote in someone on the winning side otherwise your representative is just filling a chair and part of the opposition. We learned this lesson in school with mock elections and all in Ontario, don’t they do this in BC?
I always find it humorous that no one mentions the fact that 97 South from Prince George to Hope has very little traffic.
Putting in some four and three lanes certainly helps, along with some new passing lanes however none of the improvements have increased the traffic on this stretch of highway.
We need some serious money to be spent on highway 16 West. That’s where the action is, and that’s where it will be for the next 10/15 years.
I just drove from Hope to Prince George, and I can tell you there is not much traffic on highway 97. The improvements are more about getting re elected than about need.
The bottleneck on 97 South just South of the Simon Fraser bridge was more because of the Scale being located there. Once the scale was moved, traffic improved. The expanded bridge helped, however I would suggest that there is less traffic over that bridge now, than there was before it was expanded. Lots of industry has shut down in that area.
The Provincial Government has billions in its road budget, and come hell or high water they are going to spend that money.
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