A new Highway 3 corridor appears to be on the radar and will improve connectivity between St. Thomas and Aylmer.The Ontario Ministry of Transportation has retained Stantec Consulting Ltd. to undertake a Planning, Preliminary Design, and Class Environmental Assessment.
Stantec made a presentation to Elgin County council on Aug. 11.
The purpose of the study is to identify transportation improvements to Highway 3, including a new arterial road connecting to the St. Thomas Expressway extension, known as Technology Trail, to improve transportation connections between St. Thomas, including Yarmouth Yards, and communities to the east.
According to ministry documents, the preferred option being carried forward calls for a new corridor (shown in blue on the map) that would be routed north of the existing Hwy. 3, with five alternate routes (shown in yellow) bypassing the Town of Aylmer.
There was a public meeting on Aug. 26 in Aylmer, and we wrote at length about the Hwy. 3 project last month. You can read that item here.
At Tuesday’s meeting (Sept. 8) of city council, the agenda includes a copy of a letter from Kevin De Leebeeck, the city’s Director of Environmental & Infrastructure Services to the Ministry of Transportation advising that, “The City of St. Thomas fully supports the development of a new Highway 3 corridor and recognizes its strategic importance in strengthening regional connectivity between St. Thomas and Aylmer while supporting continued economic growth and development opportunities across the region.”
The letter then provides the following comments for consideration by the ministry:
The City requests consideration be given to maintaining all existing driveways and access points along Technology Trail, Yarmouth Centre Road, and the existing Highway 3 corridor.
Given that future access and servicing requirements for several large industrial parcels along Technology Trail within Yarmouth Yards remain unknown, the city requests that any interim solution maintain flexibility for future servicing crossings and driveway access. Preserving future servicing crossings and access options will help ensure that development opportunities are not unnecessarily constrained.
The City supports Options 1, 2, or 3 (see blue lines on map), as each maintains traffic connectivity in the vicinity of the St. Thomas Municipal Airport. Preserving this connectivity is important given the airport’s role in attracting industrial and commercial development and supporting economic growth within the surrounding area.
The City’s 2025 Transportation Master Plan identified the need to continue the four-lane cross-section of Technology Trail from PowerCo Parkway easterly to Yarmouth Centre Road and identified Yarmouth Centre Road as a future major arterial corridor. The intersection of Yarmouth Centre Road and Technology Trail should be evaluated as part of this study to confirm it can accommodate forecast traffic demands under interim alternative conditions. The city supports the use of roundabouts over traffic signals at future intersections, where feasible.
The city notes that the timing of the long-term Highway 3 corridor alignment should be coordinated with the opening of Technology Trail to ensure an integrated transportation network.
The City’s 2025 Transportation Master Plan identified that intersection improvements at Edward St. and Highway 3 as well as the widening of Highway 3 between Talbot St. and the St. Thomas Expressway as long-term improvements required by 2051 to accommodate forecast traffic growth, even with the establishment of an alternative Highway 3 corridor to the east. The City would be a willing partner to work collaboratively with MTO on the planning, design, and implementation of these improvements as part of any future ownership transfer of this north-south roadway segment.
An important takeaway from the city’s letter is the emphasis on protecting access to the airport. With the boom in economic activity and residential growth, is it not reasonable to assume the facility would be a candidate for expansion?
Also worth noting is the future status of Yarmouth Centre Road as a major arterial corridor. It hooks up with Old Victoria Road south of Hwy. 401, so in the long run, would this become another conduit to the London area?
Or does the future widening of Highbury Avenue to four lanes provide adequate access?
SORRY, WE CAN’T CONNECT YOU
Also on Tuesday’s city council agenda is a report from City Manager Lisa Higgs suggesting St. Thomas is about to throw in the towel in its efforts to re-connect the missing link in the former London & Port Stanley rail line north of Talbot Street.
Higgs advises that her report arises from a council inquiry raised on June 12, 2023, regarding whether construction of the rail link could be coordinated with the construction of Project Tiny Hope, which was beginning at that time.
She notes, “Between 2016 and 2020, the city engaged extensively with CN to investigate options for re-establishing a rail connection. Significant technical analysis was undertaken, particularly in 2017, to identify alternative solutions after it became apparent that reinstatement of the former crossing would not be supported by CN.”
She continues, “CN continues to refuse authorization for a connection to its rail corridor. While advocacy efforts continue, including ongoing support from Member of Parliament Andrew Lawton, the issue remains unresolved, and no approval for reconnection has been secured.”
“Administration is therefore recommending that council consider repurposing the project area in a manner that provides community benefit while preserving future flexibility should circumstances change.”
In 2017, the city secured Canada 150 funding to support the rail extension initiative. When it became apparent that the project would not proceed, the funding was redirected toward rail-trail active transportation projects within the municipality. All of the Canada 150 funds have been expended.
Higgs is advising that the city has several options:
1) Continue to manage the site as is and retain for future projects.
2) Formally cancel the L&PS Rail Extension project and return the remaining levy-funded balance of approximately $285,000 to the infrastructure reserve. The rail infrastructure can continue to be held and stored for future installation to offset potential increased costs of new rail infrastructure.
3) Install the existing owned rail infrastructure to the limit of the City’s property boundaries, thereby preserving the corridor and recognizing its historical and future strategic value. City Administration has solicited quotes for this work. A quotation was received to install using existing owned rail infrastructure which came back at $491,354, which did not include the road works required to cross Kains Street, which would add significantly to the project.
4) Utilize the remaining funds to develop a temporary community amenity, in collaboration with the surrounding neighbourhood and Project Tiny Hope. Opportunities could include a small parkette, passive recreational space, or rail-themed public feature that activates the site until such time as the adjacent rail property owner agrees to reconnect the rail corridor.
5) Undertake a market-sounding exercise to explore long-term opportunities for the lands, including potential partnerships, redevelopment concepts, or alternative public uses that align with council’s strategic objectives and community needs. Staff cautions that this approach would have to ensure no buildings are constructed in a way that will permanently sterilize the lands against future potential reconnection as identified in the city’s 2025 Transportation Master Plan.
Higgs concludes, “While the city retains ownership of lands and rail assets associated with the project, there is currently no foreseeable path to achieving the intended rail reconnection. Administration is therefore recommending that council consider repurposing the project area in a manner that provides community benefit while preserving future flexibility should circumstances change.”
As is the norm with CN, the circumstances will change when the railroad sees direct benefits to the bottom line.
CANDIDATE PROFILE: KAY VAUGHAN, CITY OF ST. THOMAS
We continue with our profiles of the candidates running in the Oct. 26 municipal vote.
This week, we profile Kay Vaughan, who led the movement several years ago to convince members of city council to allow the raising of backyard hens.
“I want change,” stresses Vaughan.
“I want to see families be more self-sustainable. Families are trying to pick between food and rent. So if we can try to offset in some way, I think that’s my driving force to get that change put into place.
“I think that if we were able to have done it three years ago, when this went before city council, families may be in a different situation now. So that is where I stand. I want to see some change.”
As to specific changes, Vaughan elaborated, “Along the lines of being able to have backyard chickens, that is my main focus right now. And I’m hoping to be able to start more community gardens. There are not enough of them in the city.
“I know one of my biggest things too is maybe offering rain barrels to families who want them. Again, water is expensive, and we’re getting it every day right now. Lots of it. Where, if we can, use that water.
“We’re already ahead of the game with having compost and that system put into place here in St. Thomas. It’s just a matter of being able to figure out another way to help families.”
Being a single mom of two boys, Vaughan points out, “If I can teach my kids how to grow their own food, and even if it’s taking care of chickens and bringing in eggs and cooking, these are aspects of life that I get to teach my boys how to do.
“I am somebody who’s moved to the city and has watched a lot of things grow and change over the last 20 years. And I think it’s time to have some young voices on council.”
“One of my other big passions right now is garbage pickups and illegal dumping that is happening here in the town. London is a big town, and they’re able to put whatever they want at the side of the road. We’re not allowed to do that. So then where do people put their couch? Where do they put their furniture when they’re trying to declutter?
“I’d like to see it where the city can do it one day a year. You can put all of your stuff at the side of the road, and they’ll come pick it up.”
Vaughan was born and raised in Comber, near Leamington and has lived in St. Thomas for nearly 20 years.
She was formerly the community outreach coordinator for the Salvation Army.
Vaughan turned 42 earlier this summer and advises she is offering a younger perspective.
“I am somebody who’s moved to the city and has watched a lot of things grow and change over the last 20 years. And I think it’s time to have some young voices on council.
“Council needs to be focusing on things here in our city and improving our city. I understand there’s a bigger picture here. And we sometimes have to look at that when you talk about a 10-year plan and bringing in bigger industries.
“I understand that, but the everyday stuff needs to be here, needs to be in our city. And I think that the council is an older generation. They’re not seeing maybe some of the things that need to happen now.
“With younger people who can’t buy houses, who are living with their parents. They need a new voice.
“People can’t afford to pay rent. People now don’t have housing. To me, a strategic plan has to be more effective for now.”
Her campaign is underway with a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/kayvaughanforcouncil
“I also volunteer pretty religiously at this point with Harvest Hands, which, again, is right up my self-sustainable alley. So, I’ve been able to do some marketing in certain areas, and I will continue to do that.
“But I also believe that word of mouth is a huge thing. I encourage people to stop and talk to me. If you find me on Facebook, send me a message. Let me know where you stand. Let me know what you want. Let me see if there’s anything that I can help with.
“I want people to have that conversation with me and be open to the feedback that I’m going to give them and vice versa.”
Conversations on financial matters like property taxes.
Vaughan points out, “I’m a homeowner, so I understand (a five or six per cent increase in the municipal tax levy) is going to hurt at the end of the day. It’s sad to say, but the money has to come from somewhere, and things need to be fixed. Things need to be done. We complain about roads all the time. Well, where are we going to get the money from?
“It’d be nice if it was going up one or two per cent. And we worked it into a plan, where, you know, in five years, this is the end goal.
“Giving people that opportunity to prepare for that change happening. But just to kind of nail it on us seems stressful. It’s stressful on families. It takes away from me being able to put my kids in sports, feed my kids, go out for dinner every once in a while. It does take away from that. And I know I’m not the only one in this boat.”
Vaughan is campaigning under the banner, Stronger Families. Stronger Community. Stronger St. Thomas.
She wraps up the conversation with, “The hope is to be able to reach out to partners and be able to move forward.”
THE OPPOSITE OF ADDICTION IS CONNECTION
If any individual deserves credit for turning their life around a full 180 degrees, surely Ray Waters would be right up there.
The St. Thomas resident no longer has to elude coyotes and the railroad police. Fears of freezing to death are not a winter worry. He’s got his own digs now. Squatting under a Hwy. 3 bypass bridge is a thing of the past.
We caught up with Waters (seen in the photo with Amanda Zielinkski of The Nameless) this past Monday at the gathering held to commemorate International Drug Overdose Awareness Day out back at The Station on Queen Street, operated by Indwell.
He is now a volunteer with The Nameless, a community-based, peer-led harm reduction group offering access to basic needs and more.
He has a wealth of street-lived experience, which he gladly shares when he dons that Nameless T-shirt.
We began by trying to grasp what living rough entails daily, particularly when the temperature plunges.
“A lot of long nights, just freezing. Waking up covered in frost and you just kind of start jogging down the highway until you get warm. Just get that blood flowing.
“I had my camps torched out twice when I was sleeping, and I just happened to luckily jump out of the little thing I built before the car battery and propane tank I had beside me blew up.
“I was three years in a tent by myself. I never went to the shelter once. It was just too much bullshit for me. And it’s tough; you gotta survive, you gotta have will, right? You can’t give up.
“My first winter out, my hands were black most of the winter just from frostbite. But I learned all the tricks. Little metal box, some holes in it that you put your candles in there, and it heats your whole tent. But still it was cold.”
“And we don’t promote drug use; we do push recovery.”
He spoke freely of his dependency on drugs.
“It stems from trauma. So there’s childhood trauma or trauma of some sort there that, that brings that out. And it’s just like, it’s a blanket for that pain, right? Something to numb it a little bit.”
Not more than an hour earlier, next door in the city’s social services hub on Talbot Street, I heard the same explanation that trauma is most often a critical factor with the homeless population.
Waters continued, “I had some things growing up, and then my addiction started as a young teen, and then just kind of snowballed. I’d always worked. The doctor threw me on pain meds for my back, and that kind of got out of hand, and then one thing after another.
We asked him about a typical night at The Nameless’ storefront location across from city hall.
“We have a lot of people, as many as 50 people a night sometimes, if not more. It gives them a safe place to come, get their harm reduction gear, get the Narcan, just relax or get some dry clothes or snacks or whatever.
“And we don’t promote drug use; we do push recovery.”
And then a phrase I would hear repeatedly: “The opposite of addiction is connection.
“There are a lot of professional people who are addicted, like doctors, paramedics. They’re actually one of the higher addictions for opiates. So it really can happen to anybody, honestly.”
“We just try and support them, and we’re there to talk. I do peer support. So it’s just somebody to be there for them. We don’t preach to them or anything like that. We just give them that support in some way.”
Hope is his companion today.
“I got my own place, and then I got full custody of my son back and then my daughter half the time, working towards her. It looked hopeless there for a little while, but you know, you just can’t give up.
“I was lucky. I was under the bridge on Highway 3 bypass, and sitting there, and one day, Amanda came up doing outreach and got me into the hotel. And then into Indwell. So yeah, and then from Indwell I got my own place.”
Amanda, in this case, is Amanda Zielinski from The Nameless who joined us, and the conversation immediately returned to trauma.
“That’s a recurring thing that we see with anybody who comes through our doors. There are people who have experienced some form of trauma, or they have recently experienced trauma. But a lot of it’s historical trauma, from childhood trauma to, in adulthood, losing their children to all kinds of things.”
She is excited about a new initiative launched this summer.“We put together a baseball team to remove stigma and to encourage community. The opposite of addiction is connection. So helping people feel connected to their community. And playing something like baseball has been a huge piece for a lot of them.
“Some that struggle with the shelter environment. So we have people who are in encampments; we have an outreach team that goes out and tries to visit the encampments when we know where they are. So we have peer support, keeping really busy over there.”
“And addiction is a very lonely place for people. It’s easy to be under a bridge or be camping somewhere alone and not be connected. But once you start to have that connection with your community and you feel that you’re someone important, then you feel connected, and maybe that gives you hope to make those changes as well.”
Speaking of stigma, we asked her about the controversy associated with harm reduction.
“I get a lot of, harm reduction is part of the problem. You’re just adding to the problem. You’re giving them the tools to use their drugs. It’s like you don’t think that drugs will still be used if we’re not giving them clean and safe, sterile supplies or a place to safely dispose of it?
“No, it would be way worse. They’ll literally go in dirty needle bins to take out a dirty needle to use if they don’t have one. Yeah, so we at least can reduce the spread of disease. We keep people alive.
“We have conversations every day. We make referrals all the time to detox, to housing services, to social services. We try to create that bridge for people. I just can’t see why people say that’s a negative.
“And addiction is a very lonely place for people. It’s easy to be under a bridge or be camping somewhere alone and not be connected. But once you start to have that connection with your community and you feel that you’re someone important, then you feel connected, and maybe that gives you hope to make those changes as well.”
For those interested in volunteering or perhaps donating to the cause, she says, “You can come into our storefront (at 572 Talbot Street) from 6:30 to 8:30. We’re there seven days a week, or you can message us on Facebook. We have a Facebook page, and it’s monitored regularly, and we will gladly take any volunteers. We’re always looking for more support.
“We accept clothing donations, personal hygiene items, food, snacks, paper plates, paper cups – anything like you really would probably not even think of; we’ll probably accept it. People donate canned goods all the time, and they need can openers. We take it for granted.”
It’s always the little things, isn’t it?
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