A tale of two letters: Minister offers explanation for rainbow crosswalk confusion

Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Bill Fraser clarified on Tuesday rainbow crosswalks are allowed in the provinceand the decision to paint the coloured crosswalks is up to each municipality.

The confusion started afterFraser sent out letters to 13 municipalities in Marchstating the province follows guidelines set out by the Transportation Association of Canada,which stipulatescrosswalks should be painted white.

• New Brunswick's rainbow crosswalk regulations cause confusion

But on Tuesday, Fraser said municipalities received an "incorrect version" of the letterand the province supports the decision to paint rainbow crosswalks.

Fraser said the intent of the letter was to tell municipalities that engineers from across the country are working withthe Transportation Association of Canada to see if there are any safety concerns with paintingrainbow crosswalks.

Minister clarifies that rainbow crosswalks allowed

6 years ago

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Transportation Minister Bill Fraser clarified rainbow crosswalks are allowed in the province, and the decision to install the crosswalks is up to each municipality.

The letter was in a response to a letter from the mayors of the province'sfrancophone municipalities.

Fraser said his engineers wrote a letter in response telling municipalities not to paint rainbow crosswalks, but Fraser said he wasn't comfortable with that response and made changes to the draft.But the wrong letter was sent out, he said.

Meanwhile, Premier Brian Gallant tweeted on Monday afternoon that municipalities were allowed to paint rainbow crosswalks and "are encouraged to do so as an expression of pride and inclusiveness."

Safety risk?

Fraser said the researchby engineerscould lead to changes in the Transportation Association of Canada's guidelines.The minister said therehasn't been any proof that these crosswalks are safety hazards.

"Technically, it hasn't been proven or disprovedthat it poses a safety risk," said Fraser.

While the decision to paint a rainbow crosswalk is up to municipalities, Fraser recommendedputting white strips between the colouredstripsand to not paint a rainbow crosswalk anywhere that you wouldn't put a regular crosswalk.

Fraser said he hopes to have a report from the Transportation Association of Canada on the crosswalks by the end of the year, but there is no set timeline.

The province will decide from there if it will change its guidelines or not.

"We should have a standard. Obviously, when we have these standards it's for the safety. It has nothing to do with whether you're inclusive or not;it has to do with the safety of the people using the crosswalk," said Fraser.