To the Editor,
The Christmas Day closure of Highway 4 at Cameron Lake ensured my wife spent the night in Qualicum Beach and missed Christmas dinner. Curiously, Google Maps suggested an alternative route to Port Alberni via Comox and the Comox Main logging road. However a check on the Mosaic website indicated that the gate on Comox Main was locked, as was the gate on the Horne Lake connector.
Why couldn’t these gates have been opened?
Yes, I know that Mosaic keeps saying these roads are not optimal, although a couple of years ago I found the Comox Main gate open and drove on to Comox with no problem. If Mosaic is not willing to open up these routes after hours, on weekends, and during emergencies, perhaps our provincial government should considering expropriating the roads.
A larger question might be the status of the E&N land grant territory controlled by Mosaic and the companies it represents. As this grant was intended to support the construction and operation of the E&N Railway, and no longer does, perhaps it is time that the lands encompassed by this grant revert back to the Crown in right of British Columbia.
Erik de Bruijn,
Port Alberni
Editor’s note: During the extended summer closures of Highway 4 at Cameron Bluffs, the provincial government and Mosaic arranged for the Horne Lake connector to be used as emergency access for first responders, ambulances and BC Wildfire personnel. Drivers are advised to check DriveBC.ca for road closures and detours, not Google Maps.
