Work to remove trees in Petite Reviere has been halted after a number of people gathered to protest their removal Thursday morning.
A man who asked to remain unnamed says around 40 residents of the area lined highway 331 as Transport and Infrastructure Renewal workers arrived with two RCMP officers to remove a row of trees without consulting them.
He says they had stopped the province from removing the trees three years ago and were told by MLA Mark Furey if the situation were to come up again, they would be consulted.
The residents want to see the trees stay as they are old and provide a natural beauty to the area, but the unnamed man says the real issue stems from the province deciding to to remove them without talking to those in the area.
He says the province claims the trees present a ‘line-of-sight’ hazard for people backing out. He says if they are a safety concern and the province can show them proof of that, they would agree to let it go forward. However, those talks have not happened.
Workers left the area once again this time, leaving the trees in place. TIR communications advisor Marla MacInnis says the four trees are on provincial property, but they have put the work on hold until they can converse with the concerned locals about the scope of the project.
Follow Cody McEachern on Twitter at @CodyInHiFi.
