I am a 26 year old PhD…

I am a 26 year old PhD student and I find this proposal extremely concerning. It is bills like these that completely falter any hope I have for a decent future living in Canada. When my government seems to, against all educated advice, advocate for deepening our dependence on owning personal motor vehicles for travel it shocks me. I find it most concerning and I want to emphasize INCREDIBLY concerning that this bill proposes to allow for the government to build through any land they choose for highway projects they deem necessary with no way for displaced peoples to appeal their case. I find this incredibly controlling and I do not believe a government should have the power to completely decide whether or not people's homes will be destroyed and for highways that I do not believe will be necessary or even a well educated decision.

Any densely populated well developed nation leans heavily into public transport including subways and high speed rail. Another solution to a dense population is to create population centers that are walkable or easily traversed by transit or bike. The proposals laid out in this bill are not friendly to bike let alone walkable projects and I find this a step in the wrong direction if we are to become a better-developed densely populated nation. I feel as though our dependence on cars has arose from a lack of population and far distances between destinations. A highway system served Canada for a time but now that we are becoming a larger nation we need to step away from those old solutions that are starting to no longer work.

It is bills like these that make me want to leave Canada after my graduation. It is bills like these that make me lose hope in the nation as a whole. It is bills like these that will turn Canada destitute as any talent with sense will go elsewhere not as a means of maximizing profit, but as a means of survival.