I had a visit this week in Ottawa from Mr. Robert Lintell of Kelowna. Robert and I discussed the progress being made by the Okanagan Highway Corridor Chambers Transportation Panel. The Highway Panel committee is an Okanagan Chamber of Commerce initiative of approximately 25 individuals representing all communities from Osoyoos to Sicamouse and Sicamouse to Golden, B.C. The Panel has my full support.

I had a chance to introduce Robert to Brian Jean, MP the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport. Brian has visited the riding and told us he drove Highway 97 this year and has presented a report to Minister Cannon identifying areas that require immediate attention.

I’ve written before in this space about the visit earlier this fall by our Kelowna Chamber of Commerce. The improvement of Highway 97 was at the top of their list of priorities too and together we were able to make an excellent case in favour of Highway 97 with senior staff of the Minister of Transport. In government lingo we’ve been assured “it’s on the Minister’s radar”.

The Highway 97 corridor is vital to the economic success of the region. Our communities and local industries rely on this highway for the movement of goods, services and people.

The high volumes of traffic along this corridor have also been of major concern. The $11million funding announcement in July for the Bus Rapid Transit system will help but residential and commercial growth are contributing to congestion and the mix of transport and passenger vehicles along with poor road conditions makes safety on the highway a real problem.

I am appreciative of the regional cooperation that has taken place to get this far. It is a bottom up process. The more people in our communities who voice the need to improve the highway, the faster the highway improvements will move to the top of the Province’s priority list.

We are one step closer to realizing our goal is met.

On November 6th, 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Gordon Campbell, joined by federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, signed a federal-provincial agreement under the historic Building Canada Plan.

British Columbia became the first province to sign on to the new national infrastructure plan, which provides more funding, over a longer period of time, to restore and upgrade Canada’s transportation assets than any previous federal infrastructure initiative.

The framework agreement signed by the Prime Minister and the Premier will provide the province with $2.2 billion over seven years to invest in roads, bridges, tunnels, ports, public transit and more.

At the announcement, the Prime Minister and the Premier recognized the importance of keeping the flow of goods and people moving on Canada’s national highway, promising that several new road improvement projects in this region and infrastructure projects elsewhere in B.C would be launched.

So we need to be loud and clear about Highway 97 improvements, whether it’s the four-laning of the stretch between Winfield and Oyama, a second crossing, an overpass or additional public transit. Whatever we do, there needs to be a long term vision if the highway is to serve our communities effectively in the future.

I look forward to working with the Okanagan Highway Corridor Chambers Transportation Panel and all provincial and municipal representatives to see these much-needed changes come to fruition.

Ron Cannan is the MP for Kelowna-Lake Country and can be reached at ron@cannan.ca or at his Capri Mall Constituency Office @ 470-5075.