SYS Supervisor Statement on Fire Exit Roads Road in two Subdivisions

Note: It is my understanding that this issue has hit the mayoral campaign trail in the form of public statements.  The statements by the candidates were made independently of me, as is their right to do so. I have not read them.  

This statement being posted today was written by me 10+ days ago independently of this week’s statements. I wanted to first finish the series on governance and post the statement on the EOC before posting this update.   This is an important issue for the community, and I am happy it is getting attention.

Dear Residents:

As you may recall, a lot of work was accomplished by a group of residents back in November and December on a proposal for the construction of fire exit roads in the Charters Settlement and Robby’s Road Subdivisions.

We had done extensive work with landowners, road construction companies and various government departments and had submitted a comprehensive proposal to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DTI).  The proposal included proposed road leases, road improvement, gating and cost estimates.

Unfortunately, DTI have indicated that they do not have a program or funding in place for such activities.  Their main area of priorities are the building and maintenance of public highways and roads and not the type of roads we were asking for.

In response to DTI, I strongly suggested that they need to examine the issue as a matter of priority because we are trending towards having more wildfires in the future rather than having less. The examination should involve a working group comprised of relevant government agencies as well as residents in areas potentially affected by this danger.  In fact, we have very knowledgeable people in our community who know the issue inside out and have been advocating on this for at least ten years who could be good sources of information.

As you may be aware, work is currently being done by the company Transitional Solutions Inc. on developing a Community Wildfire Resiliency Plan for SYSRC. We identified the two fire exit roads as priorities for them to investigate and report on.  The results of their work will be shared the Provincial Government when their work is completed.

This is complicated and there are a lot of variables and precedent setting as well as questions about things like which level of government would be responsible to maintain the roads once built and what happens if the land is private.

This is an issue that will not be resolved during my supervisory mandate, and I will recommend to the next council that they work with the MLA’s representing this community to try to resolve the situation and to identify solutions.

Don Ferguson
Supervisor SYSRC