The temporary closure of Matchette and Malden Rd. to protect migrating animals is being put off for another year.
The Windsor-Essex County Environment Committee had recommended closing a portion of both roads for September and October to cut back on the thousands of animals killed by vehicles each year, but the proposal has been sent back to the committee.
Ward 9 councillor Kieran McKenzie says the city's Environment, Transportation and Public Safety Committee made the decision as it felt more information needed to be provided.
"My mindset was that we didn't have enough information. I wanted more scientific data that would help me to quantify the scope of the problem. We voted unanimously to refer this back so that we can make a really good decision based on complete information."
He says there's a sizable file already available.
"A previous council had already considered this issue. So there's a tremendous amount of information that the Environment Committee didn't consider. So what we've asked for the city administration to do is to make that information available so that the committee members will have an opportunity to make a decision on this issue with the full information."
Matchette Road at Titcombe Road and the entrance to Ojibway Nature Centre (Photo from Google Maps)
McKenzie says, while time is of the essence, a well-informed decision needs to be made.
"Yes, I understand the urgency with respect to some of the species that are involved and the migration patterns. With that said, we need to make smart public policy choices that have a full consideration of all of the issues that are in play. The legal considerations are not insignificant and they need to be well understood."
But Wildlife Preservation Canada's Lead Biologist Jonathan Choquette says it's irresponsible to kick the closure down the road for another year.
"We've been studying road mortality at the Ojibway Prairie Complex since 2010. We get over a thousand animals killed on the road every year, 1,600 snakes killed since 2010, that's 330 endangered. These are species that have protection in Canada yet we continue to let them be killed on the roads."
He says more needs to be done to protect species at risk.
"We are trying to do something about that as opposed to continuing to watch these animals be killed on the road. So we are proposing traffic calming measures in two sections of road that bisect the Ojibway Prairie because we know that traffic volume and road mortality rates are connected."
Two dead foxes seen on Matchette Rd. in 2016 (Photo courtesy of Save Ojibway via Facebook)
Choquette says this has done nothing but add to the death toll.
"We were aiming for this year, September and October, because that's when we get a spike in species at risk and in snake mortality. We get another spike in June, but that's already passed. With what's happened at this meeting and putting that back to the WECEC committee it's unlikely that we would have any progress on this this year unfortunately."
The road closure proposal will now go before the Environment Committee at it's August meeting and won't likely make its way back to council until October or November.
A group of local residents called for the closure of Matchette Rd. back in May 2017 as well — that request was turned down by council due to the estimated $150,000 to $250,000 cost of an environment assessment.