Doug Ford pre-election mini-budget promises new highways for GTA

Thestar.com
Nov. 5, 2021

Premier Doug Ford is signalling that the Progressive Conservatives’ road to re-election next spring will be paved through the Greater Toronto Area.

In Thursday’s mini-budget, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy earmarked $1.6 billion over six years “to support large bridge rehabilitation projects and advance key highway expansion projects, including the Bradford bypass and Highway 413.”

“We are ready to build bigger, faster and better than before,” he told the legislature.

That is significant because Bethlenfalvy’s March 24 budget pointedly excluded any mention of or funding for the proposed 60-km Highway 413, connecting Highway 401 at Milton to Highway 400 at Vaughan, and the Bradford bypass, a 16.2-km connection between Highways 400 and 404.

“We’re roughly six months further down the road,” the treasurer said when asked what had changed.

Ontario's Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy has earmarked $1.6 billion over six years "to support large bridge rehabilitation projects and advance key highway expansion projects, including the Bradford bypass and Highway 413."

“What we’re signalling today and making it very clear ... is that we’re ... serious about building Highway 413, this is the first time that we’re actually putting money in the capital plan, that we’re advancing the Bradford bypass.”

Neither will be a toll highway like Highway 407.

He noted the Greater Golden Horseshoe will attract 1 million new people every five years and existing infrastructure would be overwhelmed if new highways aren’t built.

Bethlenfalvy’s 179-page plan, titled “Build Ontario,” sets out $189.1 billion in spending -- up $3.2 billion from last spring’s budget.

The fall economic statement serves as both a template for the Tories’ June 2 re-election platform and a blueprint for the province’s economic recovery after almost 20 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It forecasts the four-to-six-lane Highway 413 would support up to 3,500 jobs a year during construction, generating $350 million in annual economic activity, and handle “300,000 commutes per day while cutting commute times by up to 30 minutes.”

A study for the previous Liberal government -- which axed the highway that would raze 2,000 acres of farmland, cut through 85 waterways and pave over 400 acres of Vaughan greenbelt land -- said it would only save drivers between 30 to 60 seconds on their commutes.

The Tories are also “committed to fully funding the Bradford bypass,” which will be four lanes and would cross 27 waterways and cut through environmentally sensitive Holland Marsh lands. It would support 700 jobs a year during construction generating $70 million in annual economic activity.

According to the government, construction “is expected to begin in fall 2022 and be completed by 2024” and would save commuters up to 35 minutes.

The bypass is the subject of a recent Torstar/National Observer investigation that raised questions about the ownership of land adjacent to the project.

Associate Transportation Minister Stan Cho’s father co-owns East Gwillimbury’s Silver Lakes Golf and Country Club, which would be spared from development under a recently proposed route change. Cho has declared a conflict of interest. No information about the bypass is shared or discussed with him.

Highways were not the only transportation infrastructure touted in the economic outlook -- even though Bethlenfalvy was dismissive of “downtown activists” who oppose new freeways.

The Tories reiterated support for the new Ontario Line subway, connecting Ontario Place with the Ontario Science Centre, as well as the three-stop Scarborough subway, and extending the Yonge subway into York Region and the still-unfinished Eglinton Crosstown into Etobicoke.

While the treasurer’s mini-budget was optimistic about Ontario prospects after the pandemic, there were concessions the health crisis is very much front and centre.

Bethlenfalvy, who will table a full pre-election budget next March, said overall the government is spending $51 billion “to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and promote economic recovery.”

That includes money to hire more nurses and personal support workers for nursing homes -- where all staff must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 15 -- along with hiring more inspectors to keep a closer watch on long-term care, expanding home care for patients discharged from hospitals after surgery or with chronic health conditions, and improving infection control in nursing and retirement homes.

As first revealed by the Star on Monday, the Tories are increasing the hourly minimum wage to $15 from $14.35 on Jan. 1, which would boost pay for some 760,000 workers.

But the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said the mini-budget “fails to provide the desperately needed immediate financial supports” for small businesses still reeling from COVID-19 lockdowns.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath panned the treasurer for not addressing affordability concerns and said the highways are “blatantly politically motivated.”

“It’s getting harder and harder for Ontarians to afford the life they’re working hard for as skyrocketing prices squeeze their budgets,” said Horwath.

“In a province where Mr. Ford’s buddies get whatever they want, Ontarians are getting none of what they need and deserve,” she said

Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said the economic statement “failed on vaccine mandates, child care, education, support for small business, and so much more.”

“Ontario Liberals would use the $8 billion saved when we stop Highway 413 to build and repair schools,” added Del Duca, a former transportation minister, who criticized the Tories for focusing on the “mirage” of a highway that would take 10 years and $10 billion to build.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner called Highway 413 “a climate, fiscal and economic disaster” that will “supercharge” sprawl and lamented the lack of serious climate action in the mini-budget.

Not mentioned in the fall economic statement were any personal income tax cuts or the remaining nickel of the 10-cent per litre gas tax cut Ford promised in his 2018 election campaign, when a global pandemic seemed more in the realm of science fiction than science fact.

Also excluded was the focus on the she-cession previously promised by Bethlenfalvy, who created a task force last June to address how women have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic.

While the mini-budget cited $1 billion for 30,000 new, licensed child-care spots, there was no mention of any progress in talks with the federal government on its $10-a-day child care plans.

But Bethlenfalvy doubled -- to $20 million over three years -- the funding to recover the burial sites of Indigenous children who died at Ontario’s 18 residential schools dating back to 1870.

Because of hefty spending on COVID-19, the Tories are projecting massive deficits for the foreseeable future.

This year’s shortfall is forecast to be $21.5 billion -- $11.6 billion lower than projected in last spring’s budget -- followed by annual deficits of $19.6 billion, $12.9 billion, $8.1 billion and $7.2 billion.

But revenues are expected to be $14.6 billion higher than projected.

There have been substantial increases in revenue forecasts as the economy has picked up since the government posted its first-quarter financial outlook, including personal income tax revenues projected to be $4.9 billion more than anticipated.

Sales tax revenues are forecast to be $3.4 billion higher, corporate taxes $2 billion higher and land transfer taxes $759 million more thanks to a bustling residential real estate market.

Borrowing to finance Ontario’s debt will cost $13 billion this year.