The Building Highways Faster…

The Building Highways Faster Act that Bill 212 is proposing in order to reduce gridlock by speeding up the construction of Highway 413 and the creation of the Bradford Bypass will make little to no difference on users daily commutes. This proposed act does not make it clear that the government will not be completing environmental assessments for the areas that these roadways will be going through. The Bradford Bypass is proposed to go right through an important and strongly protected section of the Greenbelt, the Holland Marsh. The Holland Marsh is a very important provincially significant wetland and farming area. It has some of the most nutrient rich soils for growing crops in the province and many species at risk call this wetland their home. Flags have already been raised in past years about the construction of this highway. In 2021, concerns about how construction will affect three federally protected species at risk were brought to light. These concerns still exist and have been unanswered. Bill 212 discusses how they will manage environmental protection by discussing how construction will affect the surrounding communities with things like noise, dust and lighting but no mention of the impact this will cause to the biodiversity of the surrounding wetland and its inhabitants. Overall, the construction of these highways will impact the environment more than help people's commute. Bypassing environmental assessments on protected land could severely impact the population of a species at risk or even get rid of that population in the area all together. Saving commuters a couple minutes by reducing gridlock is not worth losing important protected wetland and species at risk.