CALEDONIA—Members of Haldimand and Hamilton’s political communities met at the intersection of Highway 6 and Haldibrook Road to speak as a united voice, demanding the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) speed up their planned installation of traffic lights there, where several accidents have occurred.
“We’ve decided to come together as a group this morning because I think we are all hearing from constituents that government needs to address this situation once and for all. Highway 6 and Haldibrook Road is a dangerous intersection, and it has been for a very long time,” said Haldimand Norfolk MPP Bobbi Ann Brady at the meeting on Wednesday, September 4, 2024. “Having that collective voice is very important for the government to see ‘these folks are organized now and … they’re not going to take the pressure off until we get this done’.”
Present with Brady were Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley, Haldimand councillors Dan Lawrence, John Metcalfe, and Marie Trainer, and Hamilton councillor Mark Tadeson.
Tadeson said that the most current communication from the MTO suggests the installation is not slotted to take place for another four years.
“2028 is too long,” he said. “How many deaths are going to occur in that time?”
Brady said her office fields daily communications with constituents about the intersection, as well as Caledonia’s Argyle Street Bridge: “Whether they’re neighbours watching incidents unfold, or there have been people almost involved in an incident on the highway itself. I got one as recently as last night.”
Brady said her office just sent off their second official letter to the MTO on the issue. The first was filed shortly after she took office in 2022.
“The MTO is probably the most complained about ministry to my office, and it all stems out of Haldimand County,” she said.
Brady recalled how Mayor Bentley and herself spoke to the MTO minister at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference a few weeks ago and asked him to “come in and have a look, do the necessary studies. I don’t think a study would take very long here.”
“When you meet them on the floor you have their attention. It’s them alone or them with their assistant. You can get more out of them, I find anyways,” said Bentley of speaking to ministers outside of formal delegations.
Councillors Lawrence and Tadeson have both been working toward the traffic light for years.
“If they put some traffic lights here on both sides, it will help the intersections adjacent to it, because it will give you a break in traffic…. I’ve had requests from everyone at every intersection for so long,” said Tadeson. “This one makes the most sense for both jurisdictions.”
Lawrence noted the complicated position of the intersection: “It’s a three-way split here. You’ve got two municipalities and the Province involved here with regard to ownership.”
He said that it’s great to see the Province acknowledge the need for the lights, but said “we need action now before anyone else gets hurt,” recalling passing the scene of an accident in the area just last week. “Thank goodness there was nobody hurt … but that could have been a fatality really easily. We’ve all lost friends, family, up and down this corridor for many years, decades. Time has come that we need the action now.”
Councillor Metcalfe noted another job the Province could undertake to help alleviate traffic pressures along Highway 6: “If they would just finish the bypass from the airport out to Highway 6, it would help immensely. It would be like when they did the 403 and it took all that pressure off Highway 52,” he said. “It would open up industrial lands out there as well.”
Bentley said the volume of traffic on Highway 6 is “getting larger and larger by the day” between commuters and truck traffic heading to industrial sites.
“They want us to build houses, they want us to accommodate growth, well let’s get the infrastructure in place to do that. Let’s slow down some traffic on Highway 6 by putting in some lights, or finishing that Highway 6 extension; that would really alleviate the traffic off this road,” said Bentley.
Tadeson noted that while Flamborough-Glanbrook MPP Donna Skelly could not attend the roadside meeting, she was fully in support of the effort, with her office also attempting to “navigate the bureaucracy as well.”
He shared a message from the MTO received after his last delegation in January 2023, which said the assignment for environment assessment and preliminary design was anticipated for the summer of 2024. Tadeson added, “I’ve got a question in to this contact to find out what’s happening and when, because we’re now past the summer of 2024.”
Lawrence tempered expectations further, noting that time consuming land acquisitions still need to take place on all four corners of the intersection: “I’m pretty sure none of these owners have been approached by the Province.”
Brady noted that with new MTO Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria now in place, she is hoping that the response to her latest inquiry will set the record straight on the timeline.
“We also know that their timelines have been a little bit askew. Look at the Caledonia bridge; we’re well overdue on that and I’m told continuously at Queen’s Park ‘we’re almost there’,” said Brady. “I’m reluctant to put any weight into any timelines they give us.”
Trainer called the issue a top priority for the county, a sentiment shared by Metcalfe.
“It’s a commitment for this term of council to look at the traffic situation all throughout Haldimand County, trying to find traffic calming measures,” said Metcalfe. “This (intersection) is a top priority on that list, because a lot of our residents travel to Hamilton – this is the gateway to Haldimand County.”
Lawrence summed up his thoughts, “The basis of this whole thing is safety. That’s all we want. We want to save lives, stop injuries.”
Bentley concluded, “Let’s get it done. Let’s stop talking and get the shovels in the ground.”
