Cochrane Mayor Ivan Brooker says videos produced by Morgan Nagel for his re-elect campaign are not only unfair but inaccurate.

In two videos Nagel has streamed on social media he accuses his fellow councillors of considering his traffic and slowing growth initiatives laughable and Brooker says that's simply not the case.

"I am taking a little exception to them," says Brooker. "It makes it sound like the current council, with the exception obviously of himself, has done nothing in regards to all these things he's referencing to: traffic, water, sewer, servicing, policing.

"It's just absolutely not true that we've done nothing in regards to those things."

Brooker also says it wouldn't be acceptable for fellow councillors to laugh at Nagel's position.

"I always ran a very respectful council," says Brooker.  "He made comments on both videos that council laughed at his ideas. I can guarantee you that is absolutely not true. That would be entirely disrespectful of everybody and there's not a single person around that council table that would do such a thing.

"Did we believe in what he had to say? We didn't agreed, that would be accurate. But to say he's been laughed at is a horrible exaggeration of the truth."

The "Fix the Traffic Bottleneck" and "Slow Down" videos deal with major planks in Nagel's campaign and reinforce initiatives he has brought to council during his four-year term.

Brooker did response to Nagel's Facebook posts and says Nagel responded by saying the expense of the aquatic and curling centre prevented road projects from going ahead. Brooker says that's not true.

"I just think he's horribly exaggerating the circumstances to his benefit," says Brooker.  "I posted on there to tell people this is not the case and it has been a very productive four years with this council.

"It's absolutely nothing personal. I have nothing against Morgan. He's been on our council for the last four years and I thought we all had a very good working relationship during the course of those four years. In the last two weeks he's done absolutely a lot to destroy everything this group worked towards."

Nagel launches Online Petition

In the meantime, Nagel has launched an online petition that calls for the next council to slow down development and fix traffic. He's hoping at least 500 people sign the petition and he plans to present it to the incoming council at the beginning of their term.

He believes the two issues are entirely connected and he's tired of hearing the traffic issue is a provincial problem, believing Cochrane has been developed in such a way it has created the problem.

"The two issues are completely interlinked," says Nagel. "The reason we have a traffic problem in Cochrane is because we have been developing and growing far too quickly. In the four years we've been in government, our population has grown by almost 50 per cent and we have completely failed to build a

dequate infrastructure to accommodate that growth."

"The reason the provincial highways are overloaded is because we have designed the entire community to bottleneck on to the provincial highways. The elephant in the room that nobody is talking about is if and when Cochrane becomes a city, we take ownership of that intersection."

He believes other infrastructure is falling behind because of the rapid growth and aquatic/curling centre development and rattles off a list.

"RCMP, new police station, crime prevention analysis, our planning department is behind, upgrading drinking water and sewage... these things aren't going to be cheap, not a one of them."

"For the past four years I really felt my concerns on this issue has almost fallening on deaf ears and it's only in the last 12 months that council has started to the issue seriously. I almost felt like the things I was saying were considered laughable by council."

The second bridge is the first step, but he wants to see the under/over pass at the Centre Ave. railway crossing stepped up, a new vehicle Horse Creek Rd. crossing included in the 10-year strategic plan so the planning department can start examining the project and a second exit from the Sunset nieghbourhood eastbound to near the Gleneagles neighbourhood, something he believes is likely 10 years away.

He hasn't been suggesting a freeze on currently approved developments but doesn't want to see more residential development plans added to the pile. He does believe council should listen to proposals for more commercial and industrial development to aid existing businesses wanting to expand or to attract new ones.

He believes the petition will help motivate the new council that takes office in October.

"I challenge somebody else in this race to show me a petition and issue that will be more passionately supported in this community. There's nothing Cochrane people are more fired up about."

"I want this to be crystal clear for the new mayor and council on day one."