Bridge the Gap
The Issue
To combat unemployment during the recession, the Federal Government of Canada created an infrastructure building fund for national employment stimulus. The City, at the eleventh hour (literally), decided to apply for those funds and use them to replace, not renew, the Blue Bridge without enough public input. Originally, the City Council in Victoria had had an engineering review done of the bridge to identify its structural or engineering weak points to help the City decide on a repair path. As a citizen group we protest the decision to replace, rather than renew, and want the issue revisited to have some clear thinking about the alternative to replacement which in our opinion is that replacement is more costly, removes a historic landmark and is not in keeping with the best interests of the City and its history.