Ontario’s proposed Highway 413 outside of Toronto paves a divide between farmers, developers

Theglobeandmail.com
May 27, 2022
Dustin Cook

For Philip Armstrong, Ontario’s planned Highway 413 has ignited a battle of head versus heart.

His family’s Armstrong Manor Farm has operated in Caledon, Ont., north of Brampton, since 1869. If the highway were built, the farm would be adjacent to it, as well as an interchange connecting the new road to Highway 410.

The farm would lose about 75 acres of rented land, which it uses to grow crops both for use as livestock feed and to sell at local markets.

As trucks zoomed past on nearby Dixie Road, Mr. Armstrong said he isn’t sure whether Highway 413 is the right answer to the region’s transportation problems, not least because it would forever alter the landscape around his home.

“My heart says I don’t want this road. My head says if development continues, they’re going to need another road, so it needs to at least be designated so it is there for the future,” he said outside the farm’s main barn as more than 330 dairy cows chewed their morning feed behind him.

Ontario’s farming industry is divided over the proposed highway. Some farmers say the route is needed to support development in the area, while others express concerns about the loss of farmland and the impact it will have on the region’s food supply and family businesses.

The highway, which has become a central issue in the provincial election campaign, would run 59 kilometres, from Halton Region in the west to Vaughan in the east, and would connect with Highways 400, 410 and 427.

Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative Party is pledging to build Highway 413 if re-elected, while the Ontario Liberals, NDP and Greens have all vowed to cancel the project. Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca has said his party would take the estimated $10-billion that would be spent on the highway and instead build 200 new schools and repair another 4,500.

The project is currently in the second stage of the province’s environmental assessment process, which includes an analysis of agricultural impact. The federal government launched its own environmental assessment of the project in May, 2021.

Studies from environmental groups have projected the highway would pave over 2,000 acres of farmland and 400 acres of the Greenbelt, a protected area that surrounds Toronto.

Vehicles using the highway are expected to add more than 17 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere by 2050, according to a study by Environmental Defence, an organization that opposes the project.

Growing interest from developers in land along the route of the highway has prompted some farmers to sell their properties and either retire or use the profits to buy land farther north, where the pressures of development aren’t as strong.

But, unlike many of their long-time neighbours, Mr. Armstrong said his family don’t plan to go anywhere.

“I love living here and I love farming here,” Mr. Armstrong’s nephew Lucas said. “I’m not sure I would want to do it an hour north.”

Peel Federation of Agriculture President Tom Dolson is certain the highway is the best route forward.

“From an agricultural lens, it’s a good thing. It should take a lot of traffic off the arterial roads, and that’s something that causes a lot of grief in Caledon with the added growth we’ve had, and running farm equipment between farms,” he said. “If we implement it now, it should be minimal disruption through the Greenbelt.”

Mayor Janet Horner, of Dufferin County’s Mulmur Township, north of the proposed highway, cautioned that increased sprawl will remove needed agricultural land in the region.

According to 2021 census data, Ontario lost 4.7 per cent of its productive farmland from 2016 to 2021, the equivalent of 319 acres per day. York, Peel and Halton regions, which the highway would run through, lost the most farmland of any regions in the province between 2000 and 2017.

Ms. Horner said being able to rely on local food sources is important for sustainability. She suggested that, rather than build an entirely new highway, the government buy the existing Highway 407 from the private consortium that owns it and remove its tolls, which she said would increase usage of the route.

She noted that residential development is difficult to reverse. “The house is the last crop, and once you have put a house or a parking lot on that land, you never get it back,” she said. “You can’t grow everything in other places. Not every open field can provide the same supply.”

Peel Regional Councillor Johanna Downey, who represents Caledon, was less circumspect. She said Highway 413 would provide an opportunity for the region to pivot its economy. Instead of large farms, Ms. Downey envisions small-scale businesses like boutique farms, cideries and wineries, which she said would attract tourists to the area.

Ms. Downey, who is currently the campaign manager for Sylvia Jones, Dufferin-Caledon’s Progressive Conservative incumbent MPP, said Peel Region’s growth demands a new highway. She said it will be up to the regional municipality to promote a shift in the farming industry by providing more opportunities for young entrepreneurs to sell agricultural products in town.

“I think that’s what you will see more of in Caledon as we evolve more into a destination, as opposed to a farming community that is more commercialized,” Ms. Downey said. “That produce isn’t on a truck for three days. It’s right there, it’s in town. To me, that’s a win in the food value chain.”

Farther east along the proposed highway route, the fate of the Mill Valley Farm in York Region is already in the hands of developers. Dean Orr’s parents rented the main farmland 32 years ago and eventually expanded to 2,000 rented acres, upon which Mr. Orr grows corn and wheat, as well as organic products. The majority of the farm’s land is now leased to Mr. Orr by property speculators.

If the highway were to go ahead, it would remove about 500 acres of the property. Mr. Orr said the family plans to hang on to their other land as long as possible.

Of Highway 413, Mr. Orr said, “I would literally refuse to use it.”

“The way we’ve approached development in the region is the same way that they’re approaching the highway, and that’s build wide and fast.”