Before writing legislature…

Before writing legislature to remove infrastructure that saves lives, the provincial government should speak to experts in city planning and focus on more than simply the number of cars moving on a road per hour. The evaluation of a bicycle lane MUST include the number of deaths reduced. Many studies have demonstrated that the addition of bicycle lanes do not cause congestion and that their removal does not solve congestion anyway. In fact, it can be argued that the presence of on-street parking uses more road space, benefits fewer citizens, and causes more congestion than bicycle lanes ever do, so it would be hypocritical to leave those in place while removing bicycle lanes. You are welcome to review the benefits of bike lanes, but do not remove anything before you've studied them appropriately.

Having said that, Ontarios voted in the current provincial government so that it could address provincial issues such as health care. Please use that mandate to address those provincial issues instead of focusing on issues that are under the purview of municipalities. My vote for municipal politicians was based on their strengths in addressing municipal issues, and my vote for provincial MPs is because of their views on provincial issues. Introducing laws that interfere with municipal affairs essentially dilutes the value of my democratic vote.

If you insist on removing municipal infrastructure, the provincial government should first install the alternative option, then repay the municipality for the costs it incurred in building the original infrastructure, and finally pay for its removal, in that order.