‘From an environmental perspective, this will be disastrous’: Municipalities turn against Doug Ford’s fast-tracking of new GTA highway

Thestar.com
Feb.25, 2021
Noor Javed

Mississauga and Brampton councils voted on Wednesday to ask the federal government to conduct an environmental assessment of the proposed GTA West Highway, adding their voices to a growing chorus concerned about the impact of the route chosen by the province.

“The proposed GTA West Highway will have a disastrous impact on the environment, encourage residential sprawl and increase our dependence on cars,” Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie said in a statement, adding that Ontario’s third-largest municipality could no longer sit idle. “Too many experts and organizations have come out against this planned highway, and today we stand with them.”

The $6-billion highway GTA West Transportation Corridor, revived by Doug Ford’s government in 2018 after it was cancelled by the Liberals, will connect Halton Region to York Region, cutting through Brampton, Caledon and Vaughan to end at Highway 400.

Since it was conceived decades ago, local municipalities have overwhelmingly supported the highway, which the Ministry of Transportation says is necessary to “improve Ontario’s highway network, reduce travel times and help alleviate traffic congestion across the GTA.”

But over the past few weeks, growing public pressure has caused local councils to think twice.

Municipalities say they are concerned about a “streamlined” environmental assessment process the province has proposed for the four-to-six-lane freeway, which will cut across farmland, nearly 100 waterways and pave 160 hectares of Greenbelt land in Vaughan.

Last week, despite its long-standing push for “expediting” the highway, the town of Caledon passed a motion asking for a federal environmental assessment.

“This was a significant move for Caledon,” said Caledon regional councillor Annette Groves. “This council has been speaking for many years in support for expediting this stage.”

Groves, who has maintained her opposition to the highway from the start, added, “Given the public attention on the highway, their hands were tied.”

And on Wednesday, Brampton and Mississauga followed suit, criticizing the province’s expedited environmental process currently underway.

“The province’s proposal to fast-track the environmental assessment process represents key environmental, social and economic risks to the City of Brampton and the Region of Peel,” said the motion passed in Brampton, a city which has long endorsed the highway plan.

A federal environmental assessment -- if approved -- would override the province’s assessment. While it’s unclear how long an assessment by Ottawa would delay the project, both the provincial Liberals and the NDP have said they would cancel the highway if they were elected and invest the billions into transit instead. The next provincial election is scheduled for October 2022.

The Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks said last year it was proposing regulations to streamline the environmental assessment process for the GTA West project.

According to the posting on the environmental registry, the regulation changes would permit “construction to start earlier,” and allow for the building of new bridges, bridge expansions and transitway station construction -- all before the completion of the environmental impact assessment report, expected by 2022.

This streamlined process prompted the environmental law charity Ecojustice, on behalf of advocacy group Environmental Defense, to ask federal Minister of Environment Jonathan Wilkinson for a federal assessment. It cited potential adverse effects on environmental elements within federal jurisdiction, such as fisheries, migratory birds and Indigenous cultural sites.

The hope is the “government will step in and take a deeper look at the environmental impacts before the shovel goes into the ground,” said Sarah Buchanan, a project manager with Environmental Defense. “We asked for this … because the province is doing such an inadequate job of assessing the environmental impacts and has weakened that process.”

Buchanan said it’s clear that municipalities are also concerned that “the Ford government is not doing its due diligence at naming and examining these impacts.”

The provincial Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, in charge of the EA process, said the proposed regulatory changes will ensure “strong environmental oversight and protection while reducing timelines to allow the implementation of this critical infrastructure faster,” said spokesperson Gary Wheeler.

He added that the ministry will continue to “consider all comments received ... on the proposed regulation, concurrent with the federal government’s review of the designation request.”

In an email, Wilkinson said he “received a request to designate the Ontario government’s proposed GTA West Project for application under the federal environmental assessment process, and as required by law, I will be making a decision in the next 90 days.

“Prior to making a decision, I will be assessing all available and relevant information that is gathered by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada -- including information from the proponent, scientific and Indigenous knowledge.”

In a letter to municipalities, the Impact Assessment Agency said that if the federal government decides to do an assessment, “the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (the proponent) would be prohibited from carrying out the Project.”

Brampton regional Coun. Martin Medeiros said public opinion on the highway appears to be shifting “as a silent voice is getting more vocal now as they understand that from an environmental perspective, this will be disastrous, and from a financial perspective … it’s hard to find justification for spending billions on this project.”

Medeiros said he, along with Mississauga Coun. Carolyn Parrish, will bring a motion to Peel council on Thursday asking for federal oversight. York Region Coun. Linda Jackson said she too will be asking the York regional council -- which has remained steadfast in its support for the highway -- to support a similar ask.

Mississauga resident Rahul Mehta, who spoke at the city council meeting on Wednesday, said it was time for municipalities to take a stand against the province’s decision.

“We may be creatures of the province, but united, we are the province,” he said. “Working towards these common goals -- we are stronger together. We have done it before and we can do it again.”