Ontario steps up fight against Ottawa in push to build Highway 413

Ontario is stepping up pressure on the federal government to bow out of an environmental impact assessment that is stalling plans for the controversial Highway 413.

Thestar.com
Dec. 12, 2023
Rob Ferguson

Ontario is stepping up pressure on the federal government to bow out of an environmental impact assessment that is stalling plans for the controversial Highway 413.

Less than two weeks after Premier Doug Ford accused federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault of being an "extremist" for delaying the project, Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey said the Ottawa should not require its own assessment -- as is the case with the Ontario Place redevelopment.

"Get out of the way so that our government can get shovels in the ground," Downey told a news conference Monday at the legislature.

"We need highways to tackle gridlock and get people where they need to go," he added after filing a proposed timetable for a judicial review of the federal Impact Assessment Act. "The federal government must demonstrate the same clarity it did with Ontario Place."

However, while Highway 413 was previously designated for a federal assessment, Ontario Place was not. A decision earlier this month from Guilbeault's office determined any adverse environmental impacts at the waterfront site could be mitigated.

Ontario's push for the judicial review was prompted by a recent Supreme Court decision that the act "plainly overstepped" the federal government's constitutional authority in regard to a provincial project. In response, Guilbeault said the federal government would more "closely tether" the act's language to areas of federal jurisdiction.

"We've told them they're operating under an unconstitutional law," said Downey, who noted the last discussions were on Friday.

But Guilbeault's office said Monday that the Impact Assessment Agency has yet to receive the initial project description from Ontario.

"So far, the only source of delay has been the Ontario government," the minister's office said in a statement to the Star. "We've been waiting two years ... had they submitted it back in 2021, the impact assessment would already be complete."

Had that been done, there could be a "one project, one assessment" deal, as has been reached with British Columbia, the statement added.

"We continue to be open to working collaboratively with all provinces."

Highway 413, a proposed 60-kilometre bypass route through Peel Region from Highway 401 northeast to Highway 400, was designated for a federal environmental impact assessment two years ago, following concerns raised by environmental groups, municipalities and residents.

A joint investigation by the Star and The Narwhal last year uncovered a report to the Ontario government by two engineering firms that said the route threatens 11 species at risk, including the western chorus frog and a rare dragonfly known as the rapids clubtail that were on the federal endangered species list, but not on Ontario's. That is one reason Ottawa insisted on an impact assessment.

Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said the province has done its own environmental assessments on the project.

"It's a very similar process," Sarkaria added. "But it's important for us to build this critical infrastructure ... we're going to have over a million people enter Ontario in the next two years, and we're seeing gridlock across this province."

Like Ford, Downey said he believed Liberal politicians, particularly in Brampton, could pay a political price for "working against drivers" if Guilbeault does not back off from an assessment.

"Don't be left defending your opposition to Highway 413 in the next election. You will quickly be out of a job," he added, noting Ford's Progressive Conservatives won three Brampton ridings from the NDP in the provincial vote last year with the highway being a major local issue.

New Democrat MPP Jennifer French (Oshawa), her party's infrastructure critic, said Ford's government is "wasting the court's time and taxpayer dollars to fight the (impact assessment) process instead of following it."

French called on the government to "make better use" of Highway 407 rather than spending an estimated $10 billion ripping up and paving sensitive farmland to build Highway 413.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said the highway plan is "an economic and environmental black hole" and a "sprawl supercharger" that would reward developers but result in the building of homes far from existing built-up areas and transit links, where population density can more efficiently be increased.