I’m both fascinated and horrified at the continuing saga of the road through Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park.
Thousands of local residents have made it clear that they do not support expropriating a 20-metre-wide strip through the park to appease the demands of 50 or 60 seasonal cottage owners for a better road.
The road must already be the best kept gravel road in B.C.
I recently learned that the proposed expropriation would also include a utility corridor so these seasonal cottage owners would then have the ability to bring in hydro and turn what is supposed to be seasonal cottage community into a full-fledged sub division.
Of course we the residents and taxpayers of B.C. would have to both pay for these improvements while trying to deal with the ensuing safety issues of cars travelling at 60 to 70 kilometres through a popular recreation facility.
On any weekend, you can see hundreds of park visitors walking, biking and riding horses through the park including many families with young children.
Why is their safety less important than the convenience of a few cottage owners?
If safety is an issue, which is not borne out by any accident statistics, I suggest the Ministry of Transportation do what most jurisdictions do and place a mandatory speed limit of maybe 30 kilometres an hour on the road to keep all park visitors safe and forget about road “improvements.”
I guess our voices as residents are not as well heard as these cottage owners.
Eric Foster and Christy Clark were quick enough to nix the proposed changes to Highway 97 at Stickle Road but have been curiously silent on the proposal to remove a chunk of land from a unique and family-friendly provincial park.
Perhaps they should think about the thousands of voters in this area who have made their views clear.
Rose Harryman
Vernon
