{"id":13601,"date":"2016-03-09T18:05:30","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T23:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=13601"},"modified":"2016-03-16T11:00:44","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T15:00:44","slug":"politics-as-usual-hold-the-salt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-hold-the-salt\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: Hold the salt!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have had a relatively mild winter. Yes, some folks complain about winter regardless of whether it has been a \u201creal\u201d Canadian winter or not. But, for those who are objective about these kinds of things, and accept that we do live in Canada, there\u2019s no denying that we have had an easy time of it this year.
\nFew days of biting cold, and even fewer episodes of snow\u2026last week\u2019s large dumping notwithstanding.
\nWhich brings me to this week\u2019s rant: salt use at the GO Station.
\nThere has been little or no snow or ice, so, for the love of Hades, why is the platform literally coated in salt? Why the obsessive need to carpet every square inch of concrete in thick crystals?
\nI understand there are significant liability concerns, but how many people do you think are going to sue GO Transit that would warrant the excessive application of salt so as to avoid even the smallest potential for ice formation?
\nWhen I exited the GO Train at York on Tuesday morning, I was shocked at the state of the platform and walkway. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that there was a layer of salt at least two inches thick carpeting the ground.
\nIt was ridiculous, excessive, and totally unnecessary.
\nWhat is the end game here? Remove every speck of ice? Great, but it shouldn\u2019t also have the effect of corroding every concrete surface it touches. There\u2019s a reason why they have to keep resurfacing the platforms and walkways \u2013 because they damage them every winter with their maintenance processes.
\nJudicious use of salt is effective and necessary. Injudicious use is destructive and unnecessary \u2013 with environmental impacts as well as structural impacts to buildings and walkways.
\nAs this is a government-run service, I checked to see what their policy is on snow maintenance. I found this lovely document titled, \u201c GO in the Snow \u2013 your Guide to Winter on Go Transit\u201d. It is a simplistic, glossy, fluffy thing but a few points stuck out.
\n\u201cSalt helps reduce ice build-up, but it can also cause problems with GO equipment, such as salt collecting in the doorways, causing them to stick.\u201d
\nNo mention of the environmental impacts, just damage to their train doors. To address this terrible problem of sticking doors, they\u2019ve installed snow melting systems as well as using de-icer instead of salt at \u201cmany\u201d stations.
\nI guess the Aurora GO didn\u2019t get that memo.
\nPublic transit is repeatedly positioned as the most sustainable means of moving people around the region. It is the environmentally friendly way to go, and that is true. Getting folks out of their cars and into a train to commute is the most sensible mode of transportation, economically and environmentally.
\nBut that environmental halo is a wee bit off kilter, in my opinion, by the choices Metrolinx makes in regards to winter maintenance.
\nThe winter is almost over, do some analysis now about the use of salt on Metrolinx property.
\nIt shouldn\u2019t take too much effort to realize that they\u2019ve been applying far too much of it, then make a plan to fix it. Use it where\u2019s it\u2019s needed, and only use as much as is absolutely necessary.
\nVoila! Problem solved.<\/p>\n

Until next week, stay informed, stay involved because this is \u2013 after all \u2013 Our Town.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas We have had a relatively mild winter. Yes, some folks complain about winter regardless of whether it has been a \u201creal\u201d Canadian winter or not. But, for those who are objective about these kinds of things, and accept that we do live in Canada, there\u2019s no denying that we have had an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3xn","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 03:53:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}