Municipalities unite against CN

Ron Seymour 2009-10-01 Kelowna Daily Courier:

Kelowna now has a lot of allies in its battle with CN over the stalled Rails with Trails project. Delegates to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention on Wednesday unanimously endorsed a Kelowna resolution calling on Ottawa to take measures aimed at forcing railways to be more open to the development of pedestrian and cycling paths alongside train tracks. “We‘re going at all angles to try get some resolution to the dilemma we find ourselves in,” Mayor Sharon Shepherd said from Vancouver, where the UBCM convention continues until Friday. “Other communities across the country are having the same kind of problem as we are, getting push-back from the railways,” she said. The city had hoped to develop a Rails with Trails corridor from Richter Street downtown to UBC Okanagan. The first phase opened last year, after CN was paid almost $1 million for a right of way south of the tracks.

But the railway is now refusing to provide any more rights-of-way, saying the proposed path compromises safety. “Any encroachment on CN‘s right-of-way, no matter how well protected, can only increase risk,” Anita Fleming, the railway‘s Western Canada manager, wrote in a letter received by the city in August. Shepherd said she isn‘t sure how much weight the UBCM resolution will have in convincing Ottawa to amend the Canadian Transportation Act to make the creation of Rails with Trails an easier process. “But CN‘s position is very clear,” she said. “They won‘t change unless they have to.” In other UBCM news, this convention marks the end of Kelowna councillor Robert Hobson‘s stint as president of the umbrella organization for municipalities. He will be succeeded by Harry Nyce of the Kitimat-Stikine Regional District. Nyce will be the first aboriginal to head up the UBCM.