Brampton council votes against overturning support for controversial Highway 413

Bramptonguadian.com
Jan. 28, 2022

A motion tabled at Brampton council to reopen the debate and overturn the city’s support for Highway 413 has failed.

At its meeting on Jan. 26, council considered a motion forwarded by Wards 2 and 6 Coun. Doug Whillans to reopen the debate and reconsider council’s previous support for the controversial highway. However, the two-thirds vote required to reopen the issue was not met, with council voting 6-5 to maintain the city’s previous position.

Council supported the 413, otherwise known as the GTA West Corridor, back in 2019 when the provincial government first floated the idea of rebooting the 56-kilometre highway that will connect Highway 400 in Vaughan to Highways 410 and 407 near the border between Peel and Halton Regions.

“One of the challenges we have in Brampton is gridlock (and) the ability to get products to the marketplace is critical. Every time we look at economic development, it’s a component of our pitch. This 413 has been a longstanding ask of the city of Brampton,” said Mayor Patrick Brown at the time.

Brown was among the six members of council voting against reopening the debate. Had the motion to reconsider passed, council would have voted on a second motion to oppose the GTA West Corridor project in its entirety.

The push behind the failed attempt to reverse course by some council members was inspired by a staff report in 2020 providing options for the city’s planned Heritage Heights development, which the highway is slated to run through.

In that report, council was provided two options -- one that would include the highway and another with a streetscaped boulevard in its place.

The project has divided the community, with environmentalists arguing the need to preserve green space and combat climate change--the city’s business community advocates for much-needed highway and transportation infrastructure for a rapidly growing city.

The 413 was first proposed in 2002 and underwent years of planning before being cancelled by the previous Liberal government in early 2018. The current administration under Premier Doug Ford rebooted the highway project in 2020.

Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney applauded council’s decision to continue its support for the highway, which will be a major part of her party’s platform as it seeks re-election in June.

“We know that people living across the province, but particularly in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, deal with congestion every single day. It affects our quality of life; it affects the economy (and) adds cost to goods. Congestion is a major problem,” she said in an interview.

“I was pleased that the City of Brampton continued to support Highway 413. I think it’s the right thing to do,” Mulroney added.

However, council still doesn’t fully support the current plan and is still pushing for a boulevard through the city rather than a 400-series highway. To that end, council passed a separate motion to continue lobbying provincial officials.

“Council just unanimously decided today to send a letter to the province requesting further consideration of a boulevard. We are not giving up yet,” he told the Guardian.

Council’s pleas for an alternative to the highway haven’t found much support at the provincial level. In December, Brampton South MPP and president of the treasury board, Prabmeet Sarkaria, said the government is committed to a 400-series highway.

Mulroney reiterated that position but added her ministry is willing to continue working with council and staff on design elements to make a 400-series highway work better with the city’s development plans.

“I understand that the mayor and some members of council may have a view as to some changes that would need to be made to the design,” she said. “We’ve been meeting with them on this specific issue for some time since last year. And after a thorough review of the proposal, we indicated why we couldn’t proceed with the boulevard as it’s presented -- and that hasn’t changed.”