Fate of future 400-series highway through Vaughan still up in air

Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca says he's still waiting on a report from the advisory panel set up last year to study alternatives to the proposed GTA West Corridor.

Yorkregion.com
May 1, 2017
By Adam Martin-Robbins

The budget unveiled by the Liberal provincial government last week touted the millions of dollars it’s spending on highway construction projects across Ontario, but there’s no mention of the controversial 400-series highway linking Vaughan to Milton.

Asked about the fate of the GTA West Corridor during a post-budget news conference April 28, Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca said he’s still waiting for a report from the advisory panel, created last spring, to assess “potential alternatives” to the four-to-six-lane roadway, dubbed Hwy. 413.

“The answer is still the same as it was a year ago,” Del Duca, MPP for Vaughan, said. "The committee has yet to submit a report, but when they do we will be able to communicate further.”

After two years of environmental assessments and public consultations to identify a preferred highway route between Hwy. 400 in Vaughan to the Hwy. 401/Hwy. 407 interchange near Milton, the province suddenly suspended work on the project in December 2015.

Months later, the province posted on the project’s website that a panel had been formed and “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.”

Several municipalities - including Vaughan, York Region, King Township, Caledon and Peel Region - have urged the province to complete the environmental assessment and choose a preferred route as soon as possible.

Those municipalities argue the highway is needed to reduce congestion on local road networks and provide a connection between employment lands and the provincial highway system.

Affected developers also want the studies completed and a final route determined so large swaths of land not needed for the highway can be unfrozen and they can get on with development plans.