The proposed 413 highway would come with a steep environmental price, new report forecasts

Thestar.com
April 28, 2021
Noor Javed

The proposed GTA West highway will add 700,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere every year by 2050, according to a new report by an environmental advocacy group. That’s the same impact as the energy use of 81,000 homes in one year.

If built, the controversial 60-km highway, also known as the 413, would connect Milton from the 401 to Vaughan, ending at the Highway 400. It is expected to raze 2,000 acres of farmland, cut across 85 waterways and pave nearly 400 acres of protected Greenbelt land in Vaughan.

In a new report called “Paving Paradise: The impact of Highway 413 on Greenhouse Gas emissions, Air Pollution and Sprawl,” Environmental Defence aimed to quantify the impact of the roadway on the quality of life of GTA residents.

The report also found the highway could cause more than a billion dollars in costs associated with air pollution, including pollution-related illnesses such as asthma and lung cancer. The estimated costs also included projected damage to ecological health and crop losses.

“We wanted to know what some of the long-term impacts of this highway are, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, so let’s add it up and see what we find,” said Sarah Buchanan, a project manager with Environmental Defence.

“And we wanted to see how this could impact Ontario’s promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” she said.

Natasha Tremblay, a spokesperson for Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney, said the consultation process for the highway is ongoing.

Government officials have said the 413 will relieve pressure on existing highways and serve a growing population in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH), which is expected to reach 14.8 million people by 2051.

“Without strong action, the projected population growth in the GGH will overwhelm our existing infrastructure and make life more expensive for working families. We need our roads infrastructure to keep up,” Tremblay said.

She said the province’s environmental assessment for the project will include an air quality and GHG impact assessment.

“We take our responsibility to safeguard the environment seriously.”

Environmental Defence’s Buchanan says that emissions from transportation are rising even though governments have promised ambitious reduction targets. “Clearly, building a mega-highway is not going to help with this,” she said.

The province has set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. The federal government has said that it wants to reach net-zero by 2050, which means any greenhouse gas emissions need to be offset or absorbed through plants, trees, or buried through carbon-capture technology.

“This is a critical decision that will determine the future of the region, and how we want it to grow. Do we want to build in a way that is more walkable, transit-oriented, or do we want to lock in people to longer commutes, that experts have told us won’t get you to your destination any faster anyway.”

A Star/National Observer investigation recently explored the money, power and influence behind the government’s push to build Highway 413.

The investigation showed that eight of Ontario’s major land developers own 3,300 acres of prime real estate conservatively valued at nearly half a billion dollars near the route of the proposed highway. The value of those lands could rise dramatically if the highway goes ahead and residential, commercial and industrial development is built along the route.

In a letter to the federal government, which is still deciding if it will launch its own environmental assessment of the GTA West highway project, BILD which represents developers and builders, and the Ontario Home Builders’ Association said the highway will “provide the necessary transportation infrastructure to meet the inevitable growth in population and employment” of the GTA as it grows.

Environmental Defence’s report found the highway will lead to approximately 17.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (a standard unit for measuring carbon footprints) from vehicles by 2050, assuming the mix of vehicles driven today remains unchanged. This is about the same amount of emissions produced by the City of Toronto in a year.

The report says roughly 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent will be emitted during the highway’s construction and maintenance.