Vaughan MPP, environmentalist talk counter arguments on new highway

There are a lot of differing point of views on whether Highway 413 should be built

Yorkregion.com
June 26, 2019
Dina Al-Shibeeb

Views continue to differ following the Tory-led government’s June 4 decision to resume the Environmental Assessment of a new corridor connecting the east and the west of the GTA by linking two vital highways 400 to 401 between Vaughan and Milton to give birth to 413.

In early 2018, the Liberal led-led government cancelled the proposed 413 or GTA West Highway.

The highway is expected to meander through some parts of the environmentally-protected Greenbelt. Petitions and lawn signs with “Stop 413” popped up in King, Vaughan, Caledon and Brampton in 2016.

The new assessment of this proposed corridor, which was identified in the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe in 2005, also came to a complete halt after a report by an advisory panel.

The panel at the time suggested alternatives such as public transit, other land uses, Highway 407 truck priority lanes and it didn’t shy from putting high-tech solutions on the table when it suggested self-driving vehicles.

This rings some truth to Sony Rai, an environmentalist and director of Sustainable Vaughan.

While acknowledging that “one of the biggest challenges in the GTA is the east/west commute,” Rai said, “Currently there are no viable higher order transit options running across the north half of the GTA linking the employment centres of Brampton, Vaughan and Markham.”

“If the Province is serious about helping commuters this should be their No. 1 priority.”

But an excerpt from the frequently asked questions from the GTA West Transportation Corridor Route Planning and Environment Study online page, reads, “Our transportation forecasting was based on the assumption that all transit projects identified in Metrolinx’ Regional Transportation Plan The Big Move (2008) would be implemented.”

The Big Move has a 15-year vision, which sees every urban growth centre in the GTHA linked by the regional rapid transit network. The Big Move itself admits that “one of the most significant gaps in the current transit network is the lack of east-west higher-order transit connections to destinations other than Union Station.”

For Rai, “one of the big misses in the Big Move document is not identifying a higher order transit system that can link the large employment areas around Brampton, Vaughan and Markham.”

“By not planning for transit as an alternate it legitimizes the need for the GTA West Highway,” he reiterates his point.

Michael Tibollo, MPP for Vaughan-Woodbridge, meanwhile, acknowledges how a “new corridor crossing of the Greenbelt cannot be avoided in some parts of the study area,” continuing, “since Greenbelt designated lands run the entire width of the study are in locations such as the Humber River Valley and the Credit River Valley.”

But he added how “costs of congestion to commuters and the economy in the GTA will exceed $15 billion annually by 2031” in a province marred with heavy debt.

For Tibollo there needs to be an “effective plan to manage growth,” as communities in Peel, Halton and York Regions “continue to grow.”

While the Liberal government is the one which stopped the assessment, it's Dalton McGuinty’s majority Liberal government which introduced the Growth Plan in 2006. The plan simply spells out density and intensification targets and urban growth centres in southern Ontario as population grows.

“By resuming this EA, our government will be able to build future transportation infrastructure to improve traffic flow and help relieve traffic congestion,” Tibollo said. “The overall demand that would be served by a new corridor is estimated to be over 300,000 vehicle trips per day in 2031.”

Both York and Peel regions have previously expressed their demand for a highway to plan for the future.

Also, Tibollo said agencies such as the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, conservation authorities, Ontario Federation of Agriculture, and the Greenbelt Council have all been part of the Greenbelt Transportation Advisory Group for Stage 2 of this study, expected to be complete by 2022.

So far, “full details on measures to mitigate potential adverse environmental effects of the GTA West transportation corridor have not yet been developed for this study,” said Tibollo.

However, Rai lamented that once the highway is built, “the lands around the highway within the Greenbelt will be threatened by development further eroding the protected area.” Also, York Region has "already made a number of significant improvements to road infrastructure to help add capacity to roads including the widening and aligning of Major Mackenzie Road,” he added.