Photos contributed by CCRSA
In what many of us would describe as a parent’s worst nightmare, 23-year-old Adrianna McCauley was killed in a four-vehicle collision on September 10th, 2024, just minutes from her home at King Street West and Coleraine Drive in Bolton.
The heartbroken family of the recent graduate of Laurier University joins a growing list of families for whom a lack of safety on Caledon roads has altered their lives. Forever.
Adrianna’s death on that gut wrenching September day was “the last straw” for three Bolton women who had been ill at ease with traffic safety in Caledon for some time.
Franca Pisani, Carmela Anzelmo-Palkowski, and Amanda Corbett lead an expanding group of Caledon residents known as the Caledon Community Road Safety Advocacy (CCRSA) group.
“Residents of Caledon have had enough” stated Franca.
The CCRSA group’s intent is to bring attention, and change, to road safety and the ongoing issue of illegal truck yards in Caledon. To date they have delegated and made presentations at the Municipal government level, as well as to Councils in the neighbouring communities of Vaughan and Brampton.
In addition, they have attended Community Traffic Safety Meetings in Bolton, Alton, and Caledon East. They have led numerous rallies, walks and meet-ups, primarily in Bolton, to raise visibility and engage and educate the public on what is at stake – peoples’ lives. They have distributed Stop Illegal Truck Yards lawn signs. And they have met with other local groups all across Caledon and even groups like Truckers for Safer Highways.
Recognizing that the Provincial government also has responsibility in making roads safe the group says they reached out to Dufferin-Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones.
“Many of our members, and CCRSA as a group, have reached out to MPP Jones many, many, many times via email, phone and gone to her office in person,” said Amanda. “Some of us have received automated email responses. Some of us have had her staff, by phone, tell us that they are ‘inundated’ with emails about the issue and are looking into it.”
In absence of a “meaningful response” from Jones, one member of the group suggested reaching out to Oshawa MPP Jennifer French. French is the official opposition critic for Transportation, Infrastructure and Highways.
“We sent her an email and one of her staff responded that she would be interested in meeting with us” Amanda continued. “We had a two-hour, very productive, meeting with her. She listened to our concerns in great detail, asked clarifying questions, and provided several suggestions for us to consider in trying to get the word out and some faster action. A petition was one of the suggestions.”
On December 12th French tabled Petition No. 277 Illegal Truck Yards and Road Safety on the floor of the Ontario Legislature on behalf of the CCRSA group. The OLA website indicates that ‘the government must file a response within 24 sitting days of the presentation of the petition.’ The group says that since Parliament is not scheduled to sit again until March 3rd, they believe a response is not forthcoming until around mid-April.
The group tells JSC they were very happy to see Caledon Councillor Dave Sheen’s Motion during last month’s budget process which succeeded in increasing the number of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras to eight.
In addition, Sheen tabled a Motion yesterday, January 7th, looking for ‘Enhancing transparency in Municipal legal proceedings.’ His Motion 13.1 directs staff to ‘develop and implement a policy to enhance public transparency regarding ongoing municipal legal proceedings, with a specific focus on cases related to illegal land use.’
The Motion was one of three Sheen brought to the Council table in mid-December that were pushed forward to the January 7th meeting. When Sheen brought forward his Motion again yesterday Councillor Mario Russo asked that it be deferred until February. Mayor Groves seconded Russo’s deferral. The deferral passed so Sheen’s Motion is now pushed into February. Staff indicated an update from the Illegal Land Use Task Force may be forthcoming about that same time.
Transparency is something the CCRSA group is actively seeking as well. In fact, they would like to see an interactive map showing all the properties being used illegally and information about what is being done to address the problem being disclosed on a timely and ongoing basis.
“Residents have a right to be informed and shouldn’t have to keep digging for the information,” said Carmela.
The CCRSA group plans on actively advocating on these issues going forward. If you would like to know more about the group or join in this effort visit CCRSAgroup.com or email them at ccrsa.group@gmail.com or check out their social media pages on Facebook and Instagram.
