Transportation Ministry panel to study ‘alternatives’ to GTA West highway

Thestar.com
Aug. 5, 2016
By Noor Javed

The fate of the controversial GTA West Highway is still up in the air, but the provincial Transportation Ministry is hoping a newly formed panel tasked with looking at “alternatives” to the four-to-six-lane highway will help drive the ultimate decision.

After two years of environmental assessments and public consultations to identify a preferred route for a highway linking Vaughan and Milton, dubbed the 413, the province suddenly suspended work on the project in December 2015. It promised an update this spring.

Earlier this summer, the ministry posted an update on the website for the highway project.

“A panel has been tasked with conducting a strategic assessment of the alternatives to meeting future transportation demand and other transportation infrastructure needs for passenger and goods movement in the GTA West corridor, ” says the update.

Kwok Wong, a senior issues adviser with the ministry, says the review, which has already started, is being done “ in light of recent changes in government policy and emerging technologies.”

He said the new government policies include commitments to expand transit service, passage of the Climate Change Strategy, and policy changes that promote development patterns that are less dependent on cars. He said the panel will also look at changing transportation technology such as car-sharing services, and driverless car technology.

The decision to build the highway has rallied both environmentalists, who fear the 413 will pave over farmland in Caledon and the protected Greenbelt in Vaughan, and neighbouring municipalities, who say a highway is needed to help the movement of people and goods for decades to come.

Wong said the advisory panel includes experts in the fields of urban, regional and transportation planning, environmental assessment and protection, and resource management.

The panel is expected to provide an update in the fall.