I strongly oppose Bill 212,…

I strongly oppose Bill 212, and all of its schedules, as a resident of Toronto.

Schedules 1, 2 and 3 all relate to building a new Highway 413 project. I am strongly opposed to building Highway 413 as it is a grossly irresponsible use of my tax dollars, to build another highway which will not ease congestion, while saddling the Ontario province with maintenance obligations for decades to come. The project will take years to complete and we will not see any effect on congestion until then. In fact congestion will get worse simply due to construction. The only real way of easing congestion, are VIABLE ALTERNATIVE MODES OF TRANSIT. If the only infrastructure and investment is for cars, this creates a feedback loop where everyone is forced to drive, which increases congestion, which forces more investment in car infrastructure while reducing spending elsewhere, which forces more people to drive ad infinitum. We need more public transit! Finish the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, Finch West LRT, expand Bus routes and frequency, add significantly more bicycle infrastructure, and people will use them. The more people that take public transit, the less people will be in cars causing traffic. These solutions are quicker to implement, cost less, are incremental, and results will be visible a lot sooner than creating yet another highway. On top of that, any provisions meant to sidestep environmental concerns are morally reprehensible.

Schedule 4 has been contentious, and I vehemently oppose it. All arguments against bike lanes I have heard from Doug Ford or Prabmeet Sarkaria the transportation minister are short sighted, uninformed at best, and pure disinformation at worst. When they cite that few people commute by bike, they don't consider the fact that there are very few bike lanes in the city to be able to commute in the first place. If there were no roads at all, how many people do you think would commute by car? Unprotected bike lanes, lack of enforcement from police when people park their cars in the bike lanes makes it so much more dangerous for cyclists. This discourages bicycle use, and poses a huge safety risk. Many cyclists die on the road due to lack of good safe bicycle infrastructure. Removing what little we have would be disastrous! Every person that is currently using the bike lane to commute will either start cycling in the car lanes, or will switch to using a car, both of which will ADD to the existing congestion!

Doug Ford is against red-tape, yet why is the provincial government adding more red tape to Municipal matters like installation of bike lanes? This costs tax dollars for the city and the province to go back and forth with approvals. Let the cities govern themselves!

Please stop the partisanship, look at the decades of research in the world outside of North America, and conclude that neglecting public transit and cycling infrastructure while wasting money on highway expansions and other car infrastructure will lead to an Ontario that is unbearable, unaffordable, and unequitable.