Ontario to speed up environmental assessments, property acquisitions for Highway 413

The Ford government plans to introduce legislation that would speed up property acquisitions for highways such as the planned Highway 413 and accelerate that project’s environmental assessment.

At a news conference in Caledon, Ont., on Thursday, Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said the new bill would get highways built faster, designating Highway 413, the Bradford Bypass and the Garden City Skyway bridge as priority projects to speed up their construction.

He said the bill would also streamline utility relocations, accelerate access to property and property acquisitions, introduce new penalties for obstructing access for field investigations or damaging equipment and facilitate construction 24 hours a day.

Sarkaria said the government is also proposing to accelerate the environmental assessment process for Highway 413.

“To further streamline the building process, our government is also proposing legislation that would create an accelerated environmental assessment process for Highway 413. This will allow Ontario to proceed with early works while maintaining strict oversight of environment protections,” he said.

In a statement, the Greens’ deputy leader, Aislinn Clancy, criticized the bill saying, “This government will do anything but come up with a serious plan to reduce gridlock and get Ontarians moving.”

“Slashing environmental laws, paving over our Greenbelt – Ontarians have made it clear that they’re not okay with this. For the government to be trying it yet again with Highway 413 shows how they’ll do anything to help their inner circle over the people of this province. This expensive highway needs to be cancelled once and for all.”

Sarkaria said the proposed changes are part of the first government bill that will be tabled when the legislature resumes Monday from its summer break.

It is the same legislation that would restrict the removal of vehicular traffic lanes in favour of bike lanes in Ontario municipalities, as Sarkaria announced earlier this week. Under the proposed legislation, the authority to approve or deny plans to remove vehicular traffic lanes and install bike lanes would directly fall to the transportation minister.

In September, Premier Doug Ford said his government is examining the feasibility of a tunnel beneath Highway 401 that would serve as a new expressway, aiming to ease gridlock and traffic concerns. One expert said such a project would cost taxpayers $55 billion.

With files from Lucas Casaletto and Nick Westoll, CityNews; and Richard Southern, 680 NewsRadio