Shelburne to advocate for truck bypass with Ministry of Transportation

Written By PAULA BROWN

LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER

Councillors and staff members from the Town of Shelburne will be attending a meeting with the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) to delegate about the potential for a truck bypass. 

During their meeting on Monday (Jan. 9), Denyse Morrissey, chief administrative officer for the Town of Shelburne, gave council a verbal update on the upcoming delegation with the MTO. The meeting is scheduled to be held on Jan. 20. 

Morrisey told Council that staff will ask the MTO to lead the engagement and facilitation to implement the next steps for a potential truck bypass for the Town of Shelburne. 

“We, as a lower tier municipality, have gone as far as we possibly can go with this initiative,” said Morrissey. 

The need for a truck bypass in Shelburne has been a priority concern dating back to 2003. The Town of Shelburne last delegated the need for a truck bypass to the MTO in 2019. 

“It's more than just the congestion, traffic and noise. It's the impact [to the] downtown health and wellness, and the viability of our investments being impacted,” said Morrissey. “For a business who has to have a patio or would like to, it certainly isn't a great experience to sit there and enjoy a coffee or sandwich when you have this rumbling going past you.” 

While the delegation to the MTO has not yet been made public, Morrissey did note during the Council meeting that they will be presenting four options to the Ministry of Transportation and will be requesting the MTO explore whether the route options can be reviewed for a truck bypass.

Alongside their 2025 delegation, the Town of Shelburne will also be submitting their delegation to the MTO from 2019 as well as the County of Dufferin Transportation Master Plan, which included the Shelburne truck bypass. 

Concluding the update, Shelburne Mayor Wade Mills provided further insight into the expectations and outcomes of the delegation. 

“Delegations at these conferences are 15 minutes from start to finish. These are not meant to be conversations to solve all the problems. It is meant to get facetime in front of the ministry and say ‘the issue hasn't resolved itself, it hasn't gone away', and to keep the dialogue going,” said Mills.

Mills added his expectations from the meeting with the Ministry of Transportation.

“At this point, I think our 15-minute pitch is – going back in recent memory we have done everything the Province has asked us to do, in terms of moving this ball down the field. We're at the end of what we can do. [It's] time for the Province to pick it up and run with it.” 

Following the meeting with the Ministry of Transportation, the delegation document will be made public to the community through the Council page on the Town of Shelburne website.