What’s the priority?

Aug 01 2007 EDITORIAL Salmon Arm Observer
Something that makes people cynical about politicians is when they say one thing and do another. That’s exactly what’s happening in the Shuswap right now when it comes to the safety of the Trans-Canada Highway. A recent editorial critical of MP Colin Mayes’ efforts to get highway upgrades through our area prompted the MP to chastise us. Mayes said he has been working very hard to get the federal government to fork over the cash for improvements —‑although when we asked him what specific actions he had taken, we never got a concrete answer. Mayes was very vocal about the need for highway upgrades when he was mayor of Salmon Arm. Every time there was a death along the highway, he sent letters to the appropriate politicians in Ottawa. Now he insists that he hasn’t forgotten about the issue, but it seems to us that his initiative is lack-luster at best.

One only has to look at Mayes’ own parliamentary report, which appeared in local mailboxes last week. The flyer takes a page to set out constituency priorities and discuss Mayes’ work on these priorities, which include passport agents, agriculture, pine beetle, water issues and seniors. All laudable efforts. Nowhere in this list are Trans-Canada Highway upgrades named as a priority for Mayes. If our MP has been doing so much work on this issue, why wouldn’t he use his own publication to let constituents know? It can only leave us wondering exactly what our federal representative has been doing to represent the concerns of Shuswap residents who must drive this highway on a regular basis. But Mayes is not the only local politician that has been remarkably low-key about this issue, even in light of the continually rising death toll.

In 2003, Shuswap MLA George Abbott told this newspaper, the Trans-Canada Highway is the provincial government’s number-one transportation priority. “We’re making significant progress in regard to transportation funding,” he said. We certainly don’t feel like the Trans-Canada Highway has been given priority one from the Campbell administration since that time. Yes, there have been some improvements at the Highway 97B interchange and near DeMille’s, however, many more millions have gone into the Sea to Sky project. Now, whenever the provincial politicians are asked about funds for the Trans-Canada, they pass the buck to the federal government, saying they need to pony up first. But there is nothing that precludes the province from funding highway upgrades in the meantime. Since 2002, more than 80 people have died on the Trans-Canada Highway in our region. People in the Shuswap don’t want to hear that highway upgrades are a priority for our governments anymore. They want to see it.