Head of Sparks Street BIA wants Wellington Street re-open while study is happening
Posted Jan 23, 2023 06:00:00 PM.
The head of the Sparks Street Business Improvement Area (BIA) wants the City of Ottawa to re-open Wellington while the future of the stretch of road is being analyzed in a study.
After last year's 'Freedom Convoy' occupation that took over Ottawa's downtown core for nearly one month, Ottawa city council moved to keep Wellington Street closed to public vehicles between Bank Street and Elgin Street for the rest of the year to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
The motion to keep Wellington Street closed expired on Dec. 31, 2022.
“To dramatically change how the downtown core moves and works over once incident is a little overkill,” said Kevin McHale, the head of the Sparks Street BIA on Wake Up With Rob Snow on Jan. 23. “It's having a negative effect. We have the echo of the convoy that we are still dealing with and it's not just us, it's residents too. We are hearing from residential buildings who are having trouble getting deliveries as well, and that's a big part of it is that we have this road closure across Wellington that crosses over the major north route and south route of the downtown core.”
While the mayor and a few city councillors have expressed their desire to re-open Wellington as the study is being conducted, the federal government wants to keep it closed.
City councillors will debate on what to do with Wellington Street at a transportation committee meeting on Thursday, Jan. 26.
Listen to the full interview with Kevin McHale below:
