This proposal is a cause for…

This proposal is a cause for concern on many levels.

It's clearly an provincial overreach of power over municipal decisions. The provincial government should not be disrupting municipal infrastructure decisions. Cities represent the infrastructure demands of their constituents better than the provincial government.

This bill effectively bans bike lane infrastructure from being built due to the increase in delays and cost from the bureaucracy.

Removing bike lanes will have the opposite effect to reducing vehicular traffic. Cyclists who would have taken the bike lane would be forced to be in a car lane, increasing risk of accident and making the journey less safe and less comfortable for both driver and cyclist. Those who stop cycling altogether will be forced to take cars to their destinations, increasing car traffic.

All in all, this bill reduces Canadians' freedom to choose how they want to move places, increases costs for cities, and is unlikely to solve gridlock (which fundamentally is about reducing the number of cars on the road).

We should be following progressive infrastructure policy, like in Europe or Montréal, as an example for a greener and healthier future. This bill is the opposite of that and represents vested interests in carbon fuels and the automobile industry. Approving this decision would be a black mark on our province for future generations.