Today's Quick Quip

The decision to scrap a decade long Active Transportation trail project in favour of an ATV Trail in residential areas must have been based on artificial intelligence because there is no evidence that there was any real intelligence behind the decision.

Active Transportation is defined by CBRM  HERE as "Active transportation refers to any form of human-powered transportation - walking, cycling, wheeling, in-line skating, skateboarding, skiing or paddling." Sorry, no ATVs allowed.

But seriously....

There is no evidence that this decision was brought to CBRM Council for a discussion and a vote. At the end of 2019 (just before the pandemic) the CBRM Council did vote to ratify an agreement with PSPC (Public Works Canada) to acquire land for the explicit use of "Active Transportation". 

It is important that we know why this colossal screw-up happened and who was responsible. The two elected officials who were front and centre of making this happen are shown HERE in a CB Post article. The "WHY" is becoming more and more clear. The Facebook video at the bottom of this article speaks volumes about the why. HINT: the ATV trail provides zero value to me or my family or to the vast majority of residents of the community it runs through. It has been causing lots of problems though.

From this article (Where Has Our Active Transportation Trail Gone?) you can see that your councillors sat in council chambers and agreed on behalf of the residents of CBRM to acquire land from the federal government to build an Active Transportation Trail. This was September of 2019!

And in the video below you can hear Gerard Shaw of PSPC speaking to CBRM council about how the federal government was willing to spend federal taxpayer money to support the Active Transportation trail in CBRM (not an ATV trail). The Active Transportation trail never happened! CBRM built an ATV trail in dense residential areas after taking money from Canadian taxpayers to build an active transportation trail and also spending money from the CBRM Active Transportation trail budget.. As I am writing this, I am wondering about breach of contract.

I plan on writing an article on the Facebook video below where we see our federal MP goes out of his way to not utter the words "ATV" or mention the local ATV Group. I think he is right to stay away from this issue but it tells a story none the less. Public works has assured me that they did not dictate to CBRM to build and ATV trail and both Gerard Shaw and the honorable Mike Kelloway would not dare speak of using Canadian Taxpayer money to build an ATV trail in residential areas. Of course there is also much to talk about regarding what the other two speakers had to say. The video here: Federal Funding For CBRM ATV Residential Trail