Collingwood Mayor Chris Carrier is defending the work of Collingwood Town Staff regarding the revision of speed limits along portions of highway 26. Mayor Carrier has just returned from visiting Japan, and learned of the developing situation via email while travelling.

Mayor Carrier appeared on "Georgian Bay Today," a talk show heard daily on 97.7 The Beach in Wasaga Beach. "The Highway Traffic act is a convoluted document, as most provincial legislation is, however it’s clear after review from our solicitor that they endorse the process that the Town of Collingwood undertook to do this, and I have to emphasise that the reason this was done was for public safety” Carrier said.

Mayor Carrier is not happy with how some media outlets reported on the situation. "Looking at a couple of the editorials I’d like to know how the editorialists became traffic experts” Carrier said on his radio interview. “And if they’re going to go out and pay to have a traffic expert do a traffic study and research that the OPP and our staff have done then let them do it, otherwise put up or shut up, and quite frankly I’d like to see a retraction from the Enterprise Bulletin and an apology from the Barrie Examiner to the Town of Collingwood and to our senior staff. I once again cannot emphasise enough how frustrated I felt, being out of town, looking at this information coming forward” Mayor Carrier added.

Carrier said the reduction of speed limits was all about public safety. He said the Town of Collingwood followed the proper process. Carrier said Ministry of Transportation officials have not been able to demonstrate to Town officials where they have micromanaged a municipality that has the authority under the connecting link program to do this in the past. “So nobody else has been micromanaged but apparently we are because of the media frenzy caused by whomever by the Town of Collingwood. It is a most unfortunate situation that our staff, quite frankly, has been attacked and our process has been attacked and I resent what I read in the media in the Barrie Examiner’s editorial and the Collingwood Enterprise Bulletin” Carrier stated. Carrier threw his full support behind Collus Executive Director Ed Houghton, and said that no staff member should be criticized to the extent that Mr. Houghton was.

Discussion around the Collingwood Council Table on Monday November 5th set the record straight on whether or not the Town of Collingwood acted correctly in reducing the speed limit along a stretch of highway 26, and whether or not the OPP will enforce the new reduced speed limits.

The new reduced speed limits posted along highway 26 have been approved by the Ministry of Transportation. This was made official on Friday November 2 when the town received notice that the MTO had approved the new bylaw under section 195(3) of the Highway Traffic Act.

Related Story