Highway 413 must NOT be fast…

Highway 413 must NOT be fast tracked!!! Using Bill 197 to proceed with this highway is unsupported.

We’re in the middle of a pandemic that has already changed our lives in ways we couldn’t imagine a few months ago. Commuter traffic has changed now and will continue to change into the future. The future is uncertain but provides us opportunity to make choices that will last for generations.

In this context, I urge you to reconsider the proposed fast tracking of Highway 413. Fast tracking Highway 413 is completely unnecessary.

We do not know what the future holds, but we do know that in 2017 an expert panel recommended that there were alternatives to building this highway. They suggested that these alternatives could meet or exceed the same objectives with lower costs.

By moving forward with Highway 413, the government is once again forcing an unnecessary choice between development and protecting farmland and greenspace. Furthermore many areas the proposed highway traverses are already protected lands (i.e. part of the Greenbelt Plan 2017.

By fast tracking the Environmental Assessment (EA) for this project, and allowing construction before the EA is complete, we are putting farms and green space at risk.

People gravitate to the Greater Golden Horseshoe specifically for the connection of walkable urban and rural communities, access to locally grown food, and protected greenspace and waterways.

Our farmland and natural heritage are essential to our quality of life, economic prosperity, and resilience to climate change.

I urge you to reject the fast tracking of the Environmental Assessment for this destructive project.

Thank you for your consideration