Bill 212 is not a good bill…

Bill 212 is not a good bill for the people of Ontario:

- bike lanes save lives, help improve congestion (bikes in the car lane slow down cars), ease pressure on transit, and are good for business as more people stop and shop. The data shows this, and we should be making data driven decisions, not those based on emotion.

- the answer to solving congestion is not to build more car lanes. That is unsustainable and not future focused - the population of Toronto is continuing to grow, and the amount of car lanes we can build is limited. We have to invest in alternative means of transit, and we have to be doing this now. If we continue to build for cars only, we will be making the problem worse in the future.

- I do not usually get involved in local matters, but these bike lanes are important to me. I personally have gotten involved with canvassing efforts with Cycle TO, to ask people on the street to sign the petition to keep the bike lanes. It's rare you stand in one place and see just how many cyclists go past, but I was very impressed with how many people rely on these lanes, even in cold mid November weather. It was an incredibly diverse group, racially, young and old, and even people with kids. I spoke with both cyclists and pedestrians, and I would say about 90% of people I talked to were in favor of the bike lanes, it was rare to find people who wanted them removed. It's clear to me that the city of Toronto wants these lanes.

- It is a giant waste of money to remove existing infrastructure. This says to me that the people behind this proposal are not competent when it comes to spending funds.

- The municipalities should have the ability to make decisions about their area and what's best for their people. The province does not have the resources or local knowledge to be making these decisions, all it is doing is adding another layer of bureaucracy to the process, as well as the associated cost. Again, not a wise financial decision.

- I also dislike that bill 212 allows highways to be built without Environmental Assessments. This is incredibly important, and affects so many things, like our water, our forestry, our wildlife. Again, without these considerations, we are creating a worse future. It is also completely unreasonable that the province is proposing the ability to kick people out of their homes without notice to build these highways - this is an unacceptable level of power the province is asking for.

Overall, this bill is extremely concerning, and the facts just don't stack up positively in any way, there is absolutely no data to suggest these are smart decisions. If the people behind this bill truly believe that this is the way forward, then it's incredibly clear to me that they are not competent enough to be making decisions for the people of Ontario.