Vaughan poised to add its support to resuming GTA West Corridor EA

Caledon, King, York and Peel have passed resolutions asking for province to resume EA

Yorkregion.com
April 14, 2016
By Adam Martin-Robbins

Vaughan is adding its voice to the growing chorus of municipalities calling on the provincial government to jump-start stalled work on the study that needs to be completed before an east-west, 400-series highway across the northern GTA can be built.

But the minister of transportation says he hears a different message when speaking with municipal politicians from some of those communities.

Vaughan council is poised to pass a resolution next week requesting that the Ministry of Transportation resume the GTA West Transportation Corridor route planning and environmental assessment.

(The city’s committee of the whole passed the resolution at its April 5 meeting, now council must ratify it.)

Upper-tier and lower-tier municipal councils in other communities including York Region, Peel Region, Caledon and King have passed similar motions.

Those calls for action started rolling out within months of an abrupt announcement, in December, by Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca about suspending the environmental assessment - already well into the second stage, which included identifying a short list of route options - pending a review by ministry staff.

Asked Tuesday, about the mounting pressure from municipal officials to resume the study, Del Duca, MPP for Vaughan, said:

“Whenever I have dealings, directly, with York Region council I hear about our signature transit projects. I don’t hear directly about the other project (GTA West Corridor).”

Del Duca said when he meets with officials from both York and Peel “they tell me it’s important to proceed with, for example, the billions that we’re investing in GO Regional express rail. They’re delighted in the case of York and, frankly Peel, because the (Hwy.) 427 extension serves both (and) they want to see continued support for municipal transit projects.”

And, he added, in the case of York Region his ministry hears “most loudly and clearly” about the Yonge Street subway extension.

If built, the GTA West Corridor would extend from Hwy. 400, between Kirby Road and King-Vaughan Road, in the east to the Hwy. 401/407 ETR interchange, between Winston Churchill Boulevard and Trafalgar Road, in the west.

Among concerns raised by municipal officials are that the corridor is a critical east-west link that would reduce existing road networks and ensure lands designated for businesses are well connected to the provincial highway system.

But many environmental protection groups have opposed to the idea of a major roadway cutting a swath through farms, forests and rivers as well as the protected Greenbelt area.

They also argued the proposed highway would encourage more car use, enable further suburban sprawl and contribute to traffic congestion.

An update on the status of the proposed highway is expected later this spring.