Vaughan council yanks its support for the controversial GTA highway in a ‘stunning’ vote

Thestar.com
March 3, 2021
Noor Javed and Brendan Kennedy

In a shocking move Tuesday, Vaughan council withdrew its long-standing support for the GTA West super highway, joining a growing number of municipalities expressing concern about the environmental impact of the proposed highway and questioning the need for the highway altogether.

Vaughan council was to debate whether it should support federal oversight of the province’s environmental assessment of the chosen route for a highway that would cut through Vaughan, Brampton and Caledon.

But in a 5-4 vote, council went even further, yanking its support for the four-to-six lane highway that will pave some 160 hectares of protected Greenbelt land in Vaughan.

Ward 1 Councillor Marilyn Iafrate, who voted in favour of pulling Vaughan’s endorsement of the highway, said there were still too many red flags around the project to support it.

“Why are we destroying our city’s farmland and environment to benefit other jurisdictions?” asked Iafrate. “There are just too many unanswered questions for the public who will be footing the bill for this highway.”

The $6-billion GTA West Transportation Corridor was revived by the Doug Ford government in 2018 after it was cancelled by the previous Liberal government, which accepted an expert advisory panel recommendation that the proposed highway was unnecessary.

The highway would connect Halton Region to York Region, cutting through farmland, waterways and environmentally sensitive land along the way.

When the highway was first conceived decades ago, GTA-area municipalities overwhelmingly supported the plan, which the Ministry of Transportation said was needed to “improve Ontario’s highway network, reduce travel time and alleviate congestion across the GTA.”

With Vaughan’s change of heart, almost all of the municipalities that will be impacted by the highway now question the value of the transit corridor. With waning buy-in from local governments and growing public opposition to the highway, there are renewed questions as to whether the province will decide to once again park the project.

The Ford government has recently pumped the brakes as opposition to the controversial highway mounted.

On Monday, government house leader Paul Calandra told the legislature that the proposed highway was far from a done deal, and the process would include consultations and an environmental assessment.

“Once we accomplish all these consultations, if it makes sense for the highway to proceed, it will; if it doesn’t, we won’t,” he said.

The minister’s comments came days after Mississauga council said it no longer supported the highway, saying it would have “a disastrous impact on the environment.”

Brampton and Caledon also passed motions last month asking for federal assessments of the proposed route, essentially criticizing the province’s streamlined environmental assessment for the GTA West highway, which is also known as the 413.

The province’s regulatory changes would allow the government to begin early work on bridges and transitway construction even before the environmental assessment -- which won’t be done until 2022 -- is completed.

On Tuesday, Vaughan Councillor Alan Shefman said it was time to “put our money where our mouth is and put the environment first.”

Local resident Irene Ford, who spoke at Tuesday’s council meeting on behalf of the group Stop the 413, called it a “stunning and unexpected decision.”

“It definitely feels like we have a lot of momentum,” said Ford, citing the growing opposition across the region.

Ford said she’s still concerned the province will move forward with the highway. “They call it the zombie highway, but it would be really nice to see it go away forever.”

Despite being pleased by how the local ward councillors voted on the motion, put forward by Councillor Tony Carella, Ford said she was concerned by the fact that all the regional councillors continue to support the project.

“The only thing that has changed (in the past year) is the community has come out running and screaming,” said regional councillor Linda Jackson, who, along with mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua and regional councillors Mario Ferri and Gino Rosati, voted against the motion to withdraw support.

Tony Malfara, another resident who opposes the project, said he was “pleasantly surprised” by council’s decision, which he attributed to the vocal community opposition.

“(Councillors) started to hear people weren’t happy and they started to pay attention.”

But Malfara said he didn’t consider Tuesday’s vote to be a victory. “It’s just one step up a flight of stairs.”

Green party Leader Mike Schreiner, who has been pushing for the cancellation of the highway, said in a tweet Tuesday that given the growing opposition to the 413 “it is time for the Ford government to pull the plug as well.”

The federal government is expected to make a decision on whether to proceed with a federal environmental assessment sometime in May. If approved, the federal assessment would override the one done by the province.