The Ministry of Transportation is putting together a draft transportation plan for Southwestern Ontario.
North Perth CAO Kris Snell said the "Connecting The Southwest" plan involves everything from transit to roads and railways. All of the municipalities within Perth County have put together a joint submission, highlighting what they want to see in the final plan.
"There needs to be a regional public transportation plan put forward by the province. We also need to look at how former downloaded provincial highways are upgraded. For example, County Road 86 is now in the jurisdiction of five municipalities," said Snell.
Snell added that can be difficult when trying to make upgrades or repairs to major roads like 86, when five different governments are involved in caring for and maintaining that stretch of road.
"How do we move forward dealing with five different governments to do upgrades when the upgrades are necessary for those roads? Also, we want to make sure there's a strong rail system that serves Perth County," said Snell.
North Perth Council voted to submit the joint application at their March 9, 2020 meeting. Snell said the public still has time to provide input on the MTO's Connecting the Southwest draft transportation plan.
"The draft transportation plan is open until March 17th, so I certainly encourage everybody who's interested to make comment. So the province will then compile those comments, and create a master transportation plan for Southwestern Ontario, which I actually think is a great initiative," said Snell.
