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Author Unknown
The Winnipeg Sun
December 19, 2002
We're playing cheerleader today -- not over a football
or a hockey game but over a bridge. Specifically, we're applauding
the proposed brand new span over the Seine River, which is now
a big step closer to reality.
Wednesday night, city hall's Riel City Committee voted in favour
of building the new bridge, and the proposal now goes to the city'
s property and development committee for final approval.
The bridge in itself will be a boon to the city, but it is the
accompanying new 760-home housing development in the existing
Royalwood subdivision which will signal a new era for Winnipeg.
Ladco Company Ltd., the developer involved, could begin building
this spring.
None of this, of course, is the view of the Save Our Seine (SOS)
group, which presented arguments against the building of the new
bridge at a marathon six-hour public meeting Tuesday night. According
to SOS, which has been agitating against the project for months,
the bridge -- which SOS insists isn't necessary in the first place
-- will have an adverse effect on the wildlife and forest in the
area south of Bishop Grandin Boulevard.
Fortunately, a number of residents of the Royalwood subdivision
had heard enough talk and wanted action. Their reaction was supported
by representatives from the Manitoba Home Builders' Association
and a private consulting firm, Earth Tech (Canada) Inc., hired
by the city. In fact, Earth Tech recommended an additional bridge
be built at Warde Avenue in the next dozen or so years.
This is what we like to hear.
We heartily applaud this project specifically because with the
new bridge comes a brand new large housing development -- something
of a rarity in Winnipeg -- and generally because it signals a
willingness on the part of the City of Winnipeg to look forward
to an era of expansion.
If this project goes through -- and we refuse to entertain the
possibility that it won't -- it means jobs in construction, it
means more housing in a tight market, it means Winnipeg is planning
for the future.
We want the future for Winnipeg to be a business friendly one,
a progressive one.
And that's exactly what the new bridge symbolizes.
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