Ford Government to Reexamine New Highway Through Brampton

Bramptonist.com
November 16, 2018
Nikita Brown

Doug Ford has announced that the previously quashed GTA West Highway will be revisited. This is the project that would have brought a new highway through parts of Brampton.

Back in February Wynne’s Liberal government announced it wouldn’t build the proposed highway that was supposed to travel through parts of Brampton, Vaughan, and Milton.

The project was put on hold indefinitely after recommendations came down from a panel formed by the Liberals to examine the project.

Doug Ford announced during his campaign that if elected he would take another look at the project saying, “We’re all about building infrastructure in transportation. Our goal is to build more roads and more infrastructure, getting people from point A to point B, because traffic in Toronto and the GTA is a nightmare.”

Now Ford has announced his government will restart the environmental assessments on the project to gauge its viability.

Planning for the GTA West highway, which would circle around Brampton, connecting the 407/401 interchange, the 410, 427, and 400, had been studied since 2011, after being identified as a potential corridor in 2005.

Supporters of the project argued that the new highway would reduce congestion and help increase Brampton’s economic growth, as well as growth in the rest of the GTA.

But the project faced its fair share of opposition from environmental groups, like the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, who noted the highway would weave through protected lands and increase development and sprawl pressures on nearby agricultural plots.

Brampton in particular has waited for a decision on this project. Many of the road projects in the west end of the city, as well as secondary plan areas, such as Heritage Heights, have been delayed due to the uncertainty of how much land would be needed, or what the potential interchanges might be.