Below are Peel Region Staff…

Below are Peel Region Staff comments on Bill 212 – Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024 – Building Highways Faster Act 2024 (ERO 019-9265).

Peel Region thanks the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) for the opportunity to comment on the Building Highways Faster Act, 2024 in Schedule 2 of Bill 212, Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024.

While Peel Region staff appreciate and understand the Ontario government’s goal to build highways faster to accommodate growth and tackle traffic gridlock, there is the need to prioritize housing-enabling infrastructure along with components of these highways in order for Peel Region to successfully support local housing pledges from Bill 23 – More Homes Built Faster Act, 2023. Peel Region staff have comments and questions regarding various aspects of the legislation. These include:

• Priority highway projects potential impacts on the environment
• Priority highway project potential impacts on Peel Region infrastructure
• Utility relocations
• Expropriation related provisions
• Miscellaneous

Of primary importance to Peel Region is the protection of its water, wastewater and stormwater assets, Regional roads and Public Sector Network (fibre optic communications) in relation to priority highway projects. Peel Region staff’s specific comments and questions on the Building Highways Faster Act (BHFA) are outlined below. Please note that the following comments are provided by Peel Region staff and may be considered by Regional Council for endorsement at a later date. If additional or differing comments are provided through a Council resolution, they will be forwarded to the Ministry for consideration.

Expedited Construction for Priority Highway Projects Potential Environmental Impacts
While Peel Region appreciates the need to build and expand highways in a timely fashion to accommodate current and future growth in Greater Golden Horseshoe and the Greater Toronto Area, designated priority highway projects are significant undertakings that could have impacts on the health and the environment of the surrounding community and environment as well as affect Peel Region’s ability to plan, design and build future public works utilities and infrastructure.

Any highway project designated as a priority could be exempt from the Environmental Assessment (EA) process and subject to an expedited assessment process. This is the case for Highway 413 under the proposed Highway 413 Act, which is also part of Bill 212. As a result, expedited EAs may not allow for a solid understanding of the environmental impacts and mitigation strategies (i.e. air quality study) and community concerns regarding the impact on air quality and health, especially for those living or working near highway construction sites, may go unaddressed due to the fast-tracking of these projects.

Peel Region values MTO’s commitment to mitigate environmental impacts and address local concerns on a project-by-project basis and that construction activities will be undertaken in a manner to minimize noise levels and reduce impacts to the community. Should 24 hour, construction be permitted for priority highway projects, the Ministry should produce and publish a mitigation plan to address the negative health impacts from construction such as noise pollution and poor air quality that can be aggravated by increased traffic and congestion in the project area. Moreover, construction activities should be undertaken in a manner to minimize and reduce impacts to the Region’s infrastructure and budget.

Priority Highway project impacts on Peel Region infrastructure
Allowing expedited construction for priority highway projects, like Highway 413, may also impact Peel Region’s ability to plan, design and build future public works utilities and infrastructure. If passed, the BHFA would allow the Minister to accelerate receipt of infrastructure information, such as the location of underground utilities, as well as utility relocation and property access and acquisition. Accelerated utility relocations would impact the Region’s ability to appropriately design any changes to our utility systems and to secure necessary and appropriate lands or easements required for relocations. Peel Region staff comments specifically regarding utility relocations are outlined in the next section.

Peel Region staff request that MTO consult Peel Region at the very onset of design for all early works projects to coordinate all roads, stormwater and existing water and wastewater assets. The proposed early works may have a major impact to Peel Region’s underground assets that may require relocation or rehabilitation of pipelines prior to the proposed early works occurring.

Accelerated property access and acquisition could impact Peel Region’s typical real estate policies, procedures and best practices, impacting our ability to appropriately circulate any dispositions to other utilities, municipalities, and entities such as the school boards prior to those lands being taken by the Province.

Priority Highway projects could also impact the delivery of infrastructure construction projects that are already in the pipeline. Peel Region has identified the following questions/comments:

• What will happen to those infrastructure construction projects that have already been awarded and will be commencing and designated as a priority?
• Will priority be given to finalize those projects that have already been awarded?
• Some utility projects have seen significant expenditures throughout the different planning/design/implementation phases. What would happen with that initial design/planning time/funding invested into those utility projects already underway?

Utility Relocations and Rehabilitation Stemming from Priority Highway Projects
The Minister may require a utility company to take up, remove or change the location of utility infrastructure if, in the opinion of the Minister, the taking up, removing or changing in location is for the purposes of a priority highway project. As Peel Region is a utility provider of water and wastewater services, it is impacted by the provision.

Peel Region staff have comments, concerns and questions regarding the utility relocation provisions in the BHFA, as outlined below:

• The BHFA, if passed, would move from a court-driven appeal process to an expedited appeal process through the Minister of Transportation for disputes on MTO notices for utility relocations on priority highway projects.

• The change to the appeal process would potentially impact on Peel Region if the Ministry were to expropriate lands owned by the Region to building future infrastructure. The expedited appeal process would limit Peel Region’s ability to protect Region-owned properties as the property requirements are substantial for highway infrastructure and this could have negative impacts on existing facilities on Region-owned properties and could impact the ability to develop vacant Region-owned lands for future facilities.

It could also create a situation where Peel Region would not have the appropriate lands to relocate its water and wastewater infrastructure and MTO relocating Peel’s infrastructure to another location without the knowledge and expertise for the relocation and installation of water and wastewater utilities, which are critical to Peel residents.

• The proposed amendments also provide authority for the Minister to cause work to be done if the utility company fails to undertake the relocation. Peel Region staff request clarification around the Ministry’s interpretation of failure to relocate infrastructure, as the current language in BHFA is broad and general. It would be helpful to understand how much notice will be given to the utility owner and how many attempts will be made for challenging relocations, as well as who is responsible for the cost of the relocation. All infrastructure relocations are unique, where large feeder watermains and sewer forcemains are more challenging to relocate than small local mains. Accordingly, Peel Region would like to understand what concessions the Ministry of Transportation would make for these challenging relocations.

• The ability to complete utility relocation work could be impacted by the availability of lands and easements to work and install utility infrastructure within, which would be beyond Peel Region’s control. If lands are provided by others to Peel Region for such a purpose, then those lands may not meet our standards, increasing construction costs and complicating future maintenance activities. This could be problematic, namely for our water system, as we are governed by the requirements of our Municipal Drinking Water Licence.

• Peel Region staff further request that the topics of technical design standards and cost sharing principles, as discussed in its letter to the Ministry of Transportation dated June 3, 2024 (attached), would apply for all Peel assets that require relocation/rehabilitation as part of the proposed early works.
• Some utility relocations may result in significant impacts for vulnerable communities (such as health care, child and youth care, and social care facilities) and relocation may require extra planning efforts for impact mitigation. Will the Ministry of Transportation consider time extensions for such scenarios?

• Finally, Peel Region staff have several questions regarding impacts of utility relocates on water and wastewater utility assets in particular:
o What is the current process for receipt of infrastructure information, and how will this new proposed process change the onus on the utility owner?
o Will the owner of the assets be granted the same powers to accelerate the process for utility relocation? For example, if the utility relocation requires an Environmental Assessment, does the utility owner have the right to follow the Highway 413 Act process if said infrastructure is in support of the Highway 413 construction?

Expropriation Related Provisions
Peel Region staff would like clarification on the following expropriation related provisions in the BHFA:
• Where MTO has determined that property expropriation is necessary to support a priority highway project, the proposed legislation would, if passed, remove a property owner's ability to apply to a judge for a later date of possession under 39(3) of the Expropriations Act. This would help to ensure that the construction schedule for designated projects is not impacted, while the Ministry of Transportation would continue to work with property owners to determine appropriate expropriation and possession timelines. Staff request that the Ministry clarify whether this expropriation right extends to infrastructure owners carrying out infrastructure projects to support the BHFA.

• The BHFA proposes to add offences and penalties provisions for individuals and corporations that obstruct Ministry of Transportation officials from accessing property to carry out field studies or refuse to relocate from expropriated property by the date of possession for designated priority highway projects. Penalties, in the form of fines, would mirror those in the Building Transit Faster Act for obstructing inspections. It would be helpful to understand if this right will extend to infrastructure owners for carrying out infrastructure projects to support the BHFA.

Miscellaneous Provisions
Section 9 (1) of the BHFA allows the Minister to authorize a person to enter a property to conduct a site inspection to the purposes of constructing a priority highway project. Under 11(8) of the BHFA, the Minister may but is not required to compensate municipal property owners for any damages resulting from a Ministerial authorized site inspection of a property and can provide only partial compensation. Generally, the Minister is not required to compensate property owners for any activities done as part of the site inspection.

If the Minister is not required to compensate for damages, Peel Region may be at financial risk. In these circumstances, Peel Region recommends that the BHFA include a compensation framework for impacts of site inspections on existing municipal infrastructure (e.g., culverts, road intersections etc.) for highway priority projects.

The BHFA indicates it may override municipal by-laws that prevent or restrict the delivery of goods or services to the priority highway project, with certain exceptions continuing to apply (including weight restrictions on bridges, speed limits, and the closures of municipal roads for maintenance, construction, and special events) only where the Minister designates a part or whole of such a project in regulation. Provided that these provisions only pertain to portions of Regional roads being absorbed into MTO permit control areas related to new facilities only, Peel Region is not likely to be affected by this so long as it is still afforded the ability to regulate roadways under its jurisdiction outside of MTO permit control areas. It would be appreciated if the Ministry could confirm that the BHFA would only apply to their Controlled Access Highway limits, noting Peel’s preference that work be staged such that Peel’s Strategic Goods Movement Network provides options for goods movement across the Highway 413 corridor during construction.

Conclusion
Peel Region staff once again appreciate the opportunity to comment on Building Highways Faster Act, 2024 with the intent of improving the legislation so that Peel Region can continue to provide housing-related infrastructure while facilitating the building of priority highway projects to meet future growth.