Tell it to the ministers

Holyrood council looking to meet with Justice and Transportation ministers

By Craig Westcott / June 9, 2023

Holyrood council is looking for two meetings with provincial ministers, one to lobby for money for a new fire rescue truck, the other to talk about the state of Route 60, which serves as the main road through town.

Mayor Gary Goobie said the rescue vehicle is “much, much needed” by the fire department, which is why the Town is asking to meet with Justice Minister John Hogan in the hope of getting the Province to split the bill on a new vehicle.

Goobie said the firefighters are responding to a tremendous number of accidents on the TransCanada Highway.

“They’re providing a service not only for the residents of Holyrood when it comes to the highway, it’s for people from all over,” he said. “You could be from Port aux Basques, tourists in the summertime and the list goes on. But they spend a fair amount of time up on that Trans Canada, and because it is benefitting everybody, I think the government certainly has a responsibility to put in a certain share of funding to this much-needed vehicle. If we’re going to send our firefighters to the Trans Canada, especially in the wintertime in adverse weather conditions, we have to give them the tools and the proper resources to do their job in order to arrive safely and return safely. And this is the vehicle that’s needed.”

Both the Town and the Fire Department have been pressing for a funding deal for several years, Goobie said, but to no avail.

“There’s a big pot of money that was just announced and we hope that we will secure the funding for this much-needed vehicle,” Goobie said. “Because even if it was approved tomorrow, they’d still have to wait about a year to a year-and-a-half before it actually arrives in the town.”

Public works committee chairman Steve Windsor said council would like to speak with Transportation Minister Elvis Loveless about a number of issues connected to Route 60.

One pertains to cleaning up trash along the side of the road.

“The director (of public works) needs to reach out to the Province – Route 60 is provincial jurisdiction,” Windsor noted. “Last week, the Outer Ring Road was closed for a day for a big cleanup. So how do we handle it? How do we do it safely, and (what is) the liability for the Town?”

The other big issue is the condition of Route 60 itself – the pavement, curbs and ditching along parts of it, Windsor said, “acknowledging there are many jurisdictions in the province that also have these challenges. And I don’t mean to be overly critical, but we’re here for the residents of Holyrood, and so what we are asking for, and recommending as a committee, is that council support the request for a meeting with the minister so we can discuss this and see if we can move forward with some improvements.”

Councillor Curtis Buckle said the need for repairs to Route 60 has been talked about going back to the previous council. “People say it would be nice to get it paved,” he said. “But we just don’t want it paved. We want ditching, culverts, shoulders. There’s a lot more than paving. We want to get the whole thing done. There are a lot of washouts on the shoulders around Route 60… We want to get the minister in and see where it is in their plans. It’s an issue here in our town.”

Traffic flow has also increased in Holyrood the past few years, Buckle noted, and if not for the roundabout at the end of Liam Hickey Drive, he allowed there would be problems. 

“And there’s a few other issues,” Buckle said. “You can write letters and stuff, but the right way is to bring the minister in and sit down and have a discussion and see where it stands on their work (list) and we can address the issues that we have. That’s the best way to move forward with the issue.”

Mayor Goobie also acknowledged there are many places around the province where the roads need attention.

“And it’s very costly, we recognize that,” he said. “It’s costly on the provincial government, big time. But they’ve really enhanced their budget for that, which is something that we recommended a long time ago, that they inject more funding into that department for road improvements.”

Goobie said the portion of Route 60 that runs through Holyrood is large, going from Duffs to North Arm. So he suggested the best way to tackle it might be in phases.

“And like councillor Buckle said, do it the proper way,” he added. “Make sure the proper ditching is there. I know there are culverts in this community going across Route 60 that are blocked. We had one there by Furey’s back several months ago and the water at one point was actually going across the road and down into somebody’s basement. Luckily, they avoided having to tear up Route 60 to get at it. There are blocked culverts everywhere going across Route 60. And the ditching has to be done properly, and the shoulders. So instead of asking the government – and this is just my approach to do a proper compromise on this, because of the cost involved – if the government was to consider taking a certain section, say a half kilometre and do it and do it right. Because every year, for years and years and years, what do we see? Potholes and cold patch and a crew that has to come up with a pile of equipment and a pile of workers to fix potholes only to learn four or five months later they’re back again. It’s spending good money after bad. I think if we took an approach to try to convince the minister, ‘Look, let’s get Route 60 done and do it in phases, if that’s what it takes on the affordability side of it. Because we know there are other communities in the same position’… So, we’re not suggesting to the minister that we want all of Route 60 done in one shot. But if we’ve got to do it over a three-year period and do it in phases and do it right, I think that’s a good approach and a good compromise, and that’s something we need to put in the minister’s ear if we get the opportunity to meet.”