Attended a meeting last evening to discuss the Consultation Document for The Development of a Sustainable Transportation Plan for Labrador.

While planning for the future is good, it was clear from all community representatives that this thing has already been studied to death and it is way past time for more action less talk.
None the less we ploughed on and entertained the half dozen WST people there.

About 18 souls, 11 being from Nain, spent 3 hours giving a very comprehensive view of what transportation for the North Coast should look like from 2009 and beyond.

The representatives from the other communities expressed exasperation about being miss-informed about the meetings intent, they thinking that it was to be about operational issues of short term nature. The adjudicator mentioned that if those types of concerns were raised they would not be ignored, but the emphasis should be on plan for the future. My unexpressed thoughts were, ‘if you can’t get the present right what chance for the future’. Well actually I did manage to get that in but welded in on future marine issues.

It is not going to be easy to come up with a plan that addresses all communities, or even come close to it. In the Northern zone alone we have Rigolet and Makkovik wanting a road connection the TLH, most likely to North West River.
Further north marine is the preferred choice for the future. With some thinking a road gives more choice I look at the reality, unless some sort of development happens, most likely in the natural resource extraction area, then there will not be any road any time soon.
The three southern towns want upgraded snowmobile trails, already having a connection to NWR, the trails and the upkeep lack funding. Again further north there are no groomed trails, most of the travel being on sea ice with occasional land travel.

All agreed that Nain needs a new or upgraded airstrip to accommodate night flying when needed. Matter of fact the non Nainimuks spoke loudest and more often on this. Also unanimous was all airstrip support facilities are woefully inadequate for these times, let alone the future. High cost of airfares was high on the agenda [where is it not in the north], mentioned was the lack of any competitive pricing or offers of seat sales or weekend excursion fares.

New marine vessels are a must all agreed upon, whether one or two vessels was not really gotten into in any real sense. A combined roll on roll off passenger vessel was mentioned. All agreed, in a very profound and loud way that the status quo both in the physical and operational area is a disgrace and an impediment both in the social and economic development sense.

A lot was said on the operational shortcomings. We were promised a visit in January 2007 of other operational WST people to “listen” to these concerns in more “depth”. Also pointed out, not by me, was the absence of the Minister of WST, it was explained that the house was sitting there for he could not get away. No one bought that IMO. Also IMO the minister is avoiding face to face dealings with the people on the short comings of transport.

All in all a good chance to vent frustrations, we just need bigger caring ears on the other end, especially in the “civil service” and “private sector” arena, all 18 were unanimous on that.