Ford government to reveal Highway 413 details in mini-budget on Nov. 4

Wellandtribute.ca
Oct. 21, 2021

Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy is signalling his Nov. 4 mini-budget will include a road map for the future of Highway 413 and the Bradford bypass.

Bethlenfalvy, whose March 24 budget pointedly excluded any mention of the proposed Highway 413, suggested Wednesday that the government needs to get a move on.

“It takes a decade ... to build highways. We’ll go through the process to build highways in this province, but it’s absolutely critical that we build,” he told reporters as he announced the fall economic statement date.

In his March spending plan, the treasurer emphasized he had “not set any money aside for any highway.”

But with the June 2 election looming, Highway 413 -- a 60-km freeway connecting Milton from Highway 401 to Highway 400 at Vaughan -- has emerged as a priority for Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives.

“We have to think down the road a little bit, pun intended,” said Bethlenfalvy.

“We’ll go through the normal consultation to make sure that the highways and roads that we build are built to the benefit of all Ontarians.”

The Tories are currently airing campaign ads attacking NDP Leader Andrea Horwath for opposing a project that would raze 2,000 acres of farmland, cut through 85 waterways and pave over 400 acres of Vaughan greenbelt land.

While a study for the previous Liberal government, which cancelled the highway, said it would save drivers 30 to 60 seconds on their commutes, the Tories insist it could give them an extra 30 minutes.

Similarly, the proposed Bradford bypass, a 16.2-km highway connecting Highway 400 and Highway 404 that would cross 27 waterways and cut through environmentally sensitive Holland Marsh lands, is seen as moving commuters more quickly.

Bethlenfalvy said the Tories are also “running very fast and hard to build transit because we’re going to have population growth.”

“We’ve got to move people and goods. That takes cars off the road in the more congested areas,” said the finance minister, whose mini-budget will also tackle the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 9,800 Ontarians since March 2020 and upended the province’s economy.

”The job is not done,” he said, noting the Tories have already earmarked $51 billion over three years, including $1 billion for a vaccination plan that has seen seven out of eight eligible Ontarians aged 12 and up receive one shot and five out of six fully vaccinated.

While the Conservatives spent a record $169 billion in 2020-21 on programs -- a $16.7-billion increase from the previous year due to COVID-19 -- the deficit came in at $16.4 billion, far lower than the projected shortfall of $38.5 billion.

Opposition leaders have said the government hasn’t spent enough on the pandemic.

They point to the fact that the Tories, flush with $8.8 billion in additional federal transfer payments, actually spent $5.6 billion less than expected on COVID-19.