York Region urges green light for GTA west EA - divided highway

NRU
March 2, 2016
By Geordie Gordon

York Region staff are recommending that council ask the province to resume a currently suspended environmental assessment process for the GTA West corridor, arguing that an expanded freeway network is an essential component of the region’s Transportation Master Plan.

However, environmental groups continue to call on the province to cancel the proposed highway.

York Region infrastructure management and project management office director Stephen Collins said the region has been a stakeholder in the EA process since the beginning, adding there is a strong case for freeway expansion.

“We believe - and [the province’s EA] phase one showed - that the corridor is needed, and it’s needed across the top of Vaughan, through Peel, and down [through] Halton, connecting the 400 and the 401,” he told NRU.

In a transportation services report, York Region staff are recommending that council request the Ministry of Transportation resume the EA, which would define the preferred route alignment, as soon as possible. Collins said that the completion of phase two of the EA would give certainty to the location of the corridor, if not the timing of construction, and would allow affected communities to begin the necessary land use planning along the corridor. Collins said there are large swaths of land that are essentially frozen and unable to be planned for, due to route uncertainty.

“Now that the province has paused the study to review [the corridor], we sort of have this uncertainty as to when it might be finished, and we want to encourage the province to proceed with that phase two of the study and identify that preferred alignment,” he said.

Others disagree, including Environmental Defence executive director Tim Gray who told NRU that a request from York Region to continue the EA would be a mistake. He cites signals sent by the province in December 2015 when officials announced they would review the project.

“Given that [the province] is very committed to developing a climate strategy in Ontario that reduces emissions, is building a massive new highway a good way to do that? So I think there’s a real question of ‘is this the right direction for Ontario,’” he said.

Gray said it’s time for municipalities that have been counting on completion of the GTA West corridor to rethink their models for future growth.

“I think a lot of these places have become addicted to sprawl...they really need to, before they start advocating for yet another highway, think about what would happen if we actually took some of the cars off the road and freed up space for trucks and moving goods throughout the area,” he said.

However, York Region views the GTA West corridor as providing relief for some congested regional arterials, according to Collins, with expanded highway connections useful for goods movement, especially in the warehousing and distribution centres around the Highway 427 extension corridor.

Collins said the region does not have any information beyond what was stated at the time of the project review.

“We’re interested to understand what the province means when they say they’re going to be reviewing it, and when there will be some certainty as to what the next steps are,” he said.

If staff recommendations are adopted, York Region will join Town of Caledon mayor Allan Thompson in calling for a continuation of planning for the GTA West corridor. Peel Region staff also have recommended that transportation ministry officials complete the preferred route selection component of the EA.

The staff recommendations will be considered at the York Region committee of the whole meeting March 3.