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Paving Paradise: Roads and the Northeast Swale update, April 18, 2016





notes for an address by Candace Savage

Introducing The Swale
You know all about the Northeast Swale, right? Its called Northeast, because it
extends from the northeastern edge of Saskatoon north and east into the
surrounding RMs, twenty-six kilometers in all. Its a Swale -- an ancient river course,
formed way back in the Ice Age when the river looped east of its present course.
The Northeast Swale is not an inviting place for farming too rough, too rocky, too
wet -- and so it has been left, more or less by default, in a semi-natural state. Places
like the Swale connected swathes of natural grassland and wetlands -- are very
scarce in this part of the province.

Today, the Swale is a refuge for hundreds of species of wild animals and

plants, including some that are worryingly rare. So it is satisfying to know that it has
been identified as a priority for conservation and put under the care of the
Meewasin Valley Authority.
The MVAs Plan
This map (below), developed by the MVA and approved by the City of Saskatoon,
represents a plan to defend the Swale against the changes that everyone knows are
coming. A lot of us have spent a lot of time staring at the lines and squiggles and fine
print on this diagram.

What we see here the area in vivid browns and blues is the four or five kilometer
stretch of the Swale that is currently inside City limits. In that short distance there
are plans for four roads. From west to east, they are Central Avenue, Lowe Road, the
North Commuter Parkway and less than a kilometer away --what was once called
the Provincial Perimeter Highway, now the Saskatoon Freeway.
The Swale in an Urban Context

To get a full sense of the impact these roadways are likely to have on the

Swale, its helpful to look at the bigger picture. This map (below) shows the central
and eastern parts of the city, with the river in blue and the Swale in bright green,
connecting to the river bank and another important conservation area, the Small

Swale (light green). Red, purple and grey are commercial or industrial areas. Yellow
indicates new neighbourhoods. When all is said and done, the City estimates that
this University Heights Sector will be home to 75,593 people (75,594, if somebody
has twins).

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With that many people in prospect, it follows that the roads on this map are

not just ordinary city streets. These two in particular represent major arterial
routes. The North Commuter Parkway will be four lanes, with no central median,
leading to a six-lane bridge. Central Avenue is to be another four-lane arterial, but
with a central median. Lowe Road will be two lanes, paved. So thats ten lanes of
traffic, capable, the City tells us, of carrying 66,700 vehicles across the Swale
66,700 vehicles per day.
Room for Improvement

We all agree: people have to be able to move around the City. We all agree:

we have to protect the Swale. Under the MVA Act, this is a legal responsibility now,
not just a kinda sorta nice thing to do. We have to protect the Swale.

There is no way of stopping the construction of Central Avenue and the

Parkway, even if we wanted to. They are on the map to stay. Short of chaining
ourselves to heavy equipment, and I doubt even that would work, those roads are
being built and will be built. Yet, remarkably, there may still be opportunities to
make significant improvements.

Lowe Road could be closed. This is not a new idea, and interests within the

City have said no before. But one gets the impression that there is new spark of
awareness among certain movers and shakers in City Hall, and that spark could be
enough to burn Lowe Road right off the map. Wouldnt it make a dandy wheelchair
friendly trail?

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There may even be possibilities for improving the design of the Citys two

new big roads. The Central Ave freeway and the Parkway are being built as a Public-
Private Partnership, under terms that are shrouded in secrecy. But some of us
watched in amazement a week or so ago when a proposal to start work on the
Central Avenue upgrade it was already on the agenda, for approval by the MVA
board -- was withdrawn at the last moment. We hear by the grapevine that this
pause came in response to a report on mitigation that recommended improvements
to road design. I should note that the mitigation report was commissioned by the
MVA because of public interventions by Swale Watchers.
Conservation Zone or Exclusion Zone?

We need to keep intervening. We need to keep on saying that we want

Central Ave and the Parkway to be designed so that animals can move freely along
the length of the Swale, with connections to the river valley. So far, some attention
has been paid to the needs of amphibians, with mention of small and medium-sized
mammals, which may use small culverts under the roads. But no serious attention
zero has been paid to safe passage for larger animals. The mitigation report I
mentioned a moment ago wrote the issue off without investigation, content to point
out that the roads, as designed, will present an impenetrable and irremediable
barrier to animals like deer. This means that the MVAs conservation zone in the
Swale will become an exclusion zone for the last wild grazers on this landscape, and
we are invited to shrug it off. But could not a badly designed road be redesigned?
Isnt this something to cost out and consider?

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So far, I have barely mentioned this other road the provinces Saskatoon

freeway. We had hoped to have someone here from the Ministry of Highways and
Infrastructure to answer your questions, but unfortunately they the entire
department apparently were unable to attend. A spokesperson named Paul
Spasoff did, however, to send us the following update:

SaskatoonFreewayUpdateforNortheastSwaleWatchers

ThankyoufortheopportunitytoprovideyouwithanupdateontheSaskatoonFreewayProject.
Unfortunatelyweareunabletohaveanyoneattendyourmeetingandprovidethisupdateinperson,
butweappreciateyousharingthisinformationonourbehalf.

Asyoumaybeaware,theMinistryofHighwaysandInfrastructurehasbeenplanningforthefuture
SaskatoonFreewaysince2005incollaborationwiththeCityofSaskatoon,RuralMunicipalityofCorman
Parkandotherstakeholders.Duetothesignificantgrowththathasoccurredintheregionsincethe
planningworkwasoriginallycompletedin2007,weconductedaValidationStudyin2014toreviewthe
previousplanningworkandensurethatitisstillrelevant.

Basedontheextensiveplanningworkthathastakenplace,thelocationofthenorthrouteofthe
SaskatoonFreewayhasbeenfinalized.Weunderstandtherearesomeconcernswiththelocationofthe
FreewaycrossingtheNortheastSwale;however,weassureyouthatalotofworkandcareful
considerationhasgoneintothisdecision.Fromanenvironmentalperspective,webelievethisisthe
mostbeneficialareaforthecrossing.ForthosethatsuggestavoidingtheSwalealtogether,thatissimply
notpossible.TheNortheastSwaleextends23kilometresinanortheastdirectionandwillnotbe
possibletoavoid.Pleasekeepinmindthatallwevedonetothispointisdeterminetherouteofthe
Freeway.Wehavenotyetundertakenthefunctionalordesignwork,sothereisstillplentyoftimeand
opportunitiesforyourinput.WewanttoworkwithyoutominimizetheimpactontheNortheastSwale.

Aswithallofourwork,theMinistryofHighwaysandInfrastructuremustadheretostrictenvironmental
guidelinesandmitigateenvironmentalimpactsandtheSaskatoonFreewayProjectwillnotbeany
different.ByfollowingtheseregulationsandworkingcloselywiththeMeewasinValleyAuthority,we
haveeveryintentionofbeingresponsiblestewardsoftheenvironment.

Butourworkdoesntstopthere.Wewanttogobeyondwhatisrequired,soweareplanningtoconduct
furtherconsultationsonenvironmentalimpactstoensurewehaveaccesstothewidestrangeof
informationwhenmakingdecisionsontheSaskatoonFreeway.WehavereachedouttotheNortheast
SwaleWatchersthroughLouiseJonestogaugetheinterestinservingasamemberofourSaskatoon
FreewayEnvironment&HeritageSubCommittee.WearepleasedtoreportthatLouisehasaccepted
thisofferonbehalfoftheNortheastSwaleWatchers.Thisistremendousnews,asitwillallowyouto
shareyourexpertisethroughyourrepresentativesonthesubcommitteeandhelpguideourdecisions
astheprojectmovesforward.WeheardfromtheCityofSaskatoonhowhelpfulyouradvicewasduring
planningfortheNorthCommuterParkway.Thankyouforofferingtosharethatsameexpertiseonthe
SaskatoonFreewayProject.

Thankyou.

MinistryofHighwaysandInfrastructure

In the short term, our priority has to be getting things right, or as right as we can, to
protect and reconnect the Northeast Swale. But the kinds of difficulties we are facing
now are going to crop up again and again in the future. Look at this (below) this is
a draft version of a regional land-use map that is being developed for the Saskatoon
North Partnership for Growth. Again, residential development is yellow.
Conservation + drainage areas are green. Could there be conflicts between
protecting those corridors of green and getting people from A to B? Without
coordinated planning from the outset, there are bound to be.

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In the interests of understanding long-term strategies for preventing these

preventable conflicts, Louise Jones and I realized that we needed to help. And as
amazing good luck would have it, we managed to connect with one of Canadas most
renowned urban planners just as he was planning a stop-over in Regina. His name
is Larry Beasley, and you can meet him here, through the miracle of technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E3LaV-dEi4