Building new GTA highways in time of climate change: ‘old fashioned’ thinking or a critical need?

Ontario would create 50% more jobs if province spent same amount of money retrofitting buildings, professor says

thestar.com
Dina Al-Shibeeb
March 21, 2022

In February, the United Nations issued a major report designed to guide world leaders in their efforts to curb climate change.

The report drew imagery of a hungrier, perilous world in the next 18 years with an “unavoidable” increase in risks, but noted the worst effects of climate change can still be mitigated.

However, Premier Doug Ford chose Vaughan on March 10 to be his launch pad to announce a 30-year transportation plan, spotlighting two highways seen by many as endangering the environment.

The transportation plan backs Highway 413 -- initially estimated to cost at least $6 billion. This highway will not only go through the Greenbelt, but is expected to destroy a combined 5.95 km of forests.

The highway is seen as bringing relief to the "most congested corridor in North America and give commuters about another hour every day," the Transportation Ministry argued.

There is no current proof there will be a major time savings as the highway undergoes a federal assessment.

The planned Bradford Bypass -- estimated to be a 16.2 km controlled access freeway -- could also negatively impact environmentally sensitive areas.

Ford’s government's rationale is that adding more thoroughfares and extensions would reduce traffic congestion and, by default, cars’ carbon emissions, especially since the population of the Greater Golden Horseshoe is expected to reach nearly 15 million over the next 30 years.

However, some experts argue this point.

“Transportation accounts for a lot of emissions, and there's a great potential to reduce those through electrification,” Eric Miller, a professor who specializes in the economics of environmental issues and public policy at York University, said.

Miller believes these billions in taxpayers' money are better spent to retrofit homes to reduce the amount of energy consumed and electrify transportation.

The professor, who is directing York University’s Ecological Footprint Initiative and managing the Footprint Data Foundation, has also crunched the numbers to estimate Ontarians could get 50 per cent more jobs if the same amount of money was spent retrofitting buildings as opposed to adding new highways.

Not only that, but he says the difference is stark when comparing carbon footprints.

"Each repair job corresponds to 22 tons of greenhouse gases, which includes the indirect emissions from all the supplies and services and so on," Miller said. "In contrast to each job in the transportation, engineering, construction corresponds to 41 tons of emissions."

Miller also questioned paving over farmland.

"What losses are going to be from that?" he asked. "Does that mean that we're going to have to rely more on imports from the rest of the world?"

Stuart Turnbull, who was an economics professor at the University of Toronto and now a business professor at the University of Houston, flagged the reduction of farmland as a mistake.

"It is cheaper to build highways than alternative transportation systems that have less impact on the environment," Turnbull added.

The professor also reiterated an opinion widely used by the opponents of the highway: that climate change is going to threaten food supplies.

"We need these areas to help conserve water (also carbon capture) and food supplies," he said.

The Transportation Ministry says Highway 413 will link growing regions and attract increased investment in auto manufacturing and other industries. The highway will also support up to 3,500 jobs and generate up to $350 million in gross domestic product every year during construction, proponents argue.

However, Miller described calculating GDP in that way as rather "old-fashioned".

"It's too bad that people are sort of stuck chasing the metrics from the 20th century, but in the 21st century," he said, adding that health care or human services add more jobs than cutting down trees.

The Transportation Ministry, however, is betting on the advancement of electric vehicles, citing how the number of these vehicles registered in Ontario has doubled over the last three years.