Mayor Thorne Rochon elected to AMO’s Northern caucus
Christian Gammon-Roy
Tribune
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) just held its annual conference from August 16 to 19 in Ottawa, with West Nipissing making two in-person pleas to provincial officials, one to the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) to discuss traffic lights in Verner, and another to the Ministry of Northern Economic Development and Growth to discuss an upcoming repair project at Minnehaha Bay. During the conference, West Nipissing mayor Kathleen Thorne Rochon was elected to the AMO Board of Directors, as part of the Northern Caucus. The mayor took the time to talk about the conference upon her return.
“We went to speak with them about a traffic signal at the corner of Highway 575 and Highway 17,” describes Thorne Rochon about the MTO delegation. According to the mayor, staff prepared a “significant package” of information regarding the concerns residents, staff, and council members have had with the intersection, and brought that to the attention of the Ministry. “Including the fact that we have a 600-signature petition from residents, we included the collision data from the OPP, we also included household counts from about a 2-kilometre radius just to show who would be getting on and off the highway to either go eastbound or westbound. So, obviously that included the village of Verner, and the settlement around Cache Lake and came up with around 500 households. There’s the Verner golf course, we identified the fact that the Verner Co-op gas bar I think is the last gas bar that serves transport trucks before you get to around Wahnapitae, and then also identified the other commercial entrances that are off the highway, within 500 to 600 meters on either side. So, that includes our Public Works yard, and there’s quite a few streets that exit off there” she enumerated.
The Ministry committed to a new traffic study for that stretch of the highway. According to what they told the mayor, traffic data for the area dates back to 2016, which is when the speed limit decreased to 80km/h as you drive through Verner. “They often base their decisions regarding lights on what comes out of those traffic studies. So, that’s counts, speeds, probably how many people are entering or exiting the highway at that intersection,” the mayor describes. While she admits this isn’t a direct commitment to put up a traffic light, as Verner petitioners demanded, there is some hope as this is effectively the first step in that process.