While Bill 212 is well…

While Bill 212 is well intended, it will neither meaningfully reduce gridlock or traffic congestion, and will damage our environment. It must not be passed.

Highway 413 will actually make traffic work, in part due to induced demand. The creation of more options for driving results in more people driving or taking similar routes and thereby creating traffic. This also results in sprawl, spreading things out and forcing more people to use cars, which are space inefficient.

Worsening this is that it encourages car use at the detriment of alternative forms of transportation that are not only more economical, but better for Ontarians health and Ontario's environment. Bicycle infrastructure promotes activity, reducing health care costs, emits less, helping the environment, and is less costly to maintain for both the government and the riders, saving both money.

Furthermore, car infrastructure, like highway 413, harms people, especially vulnerable groups like children, both directly through accidents and indirectly through air pollution both from the tires wearing out and the exhaust.

Lastly is the problem that it exempts highway 413 from the Environmental assessment act, as quote, "The following are exempt from the Environmental Assessment Act: 1. The Highway 413 Project, including any change to the Highway 413 Project." That act helps us make sure the environment is minimally harmed, this cannot be an exception. In addition, are the carbon emissions. Given the nature of the project it will produce a tremendous amount of emissions and currently we are not reaching our emission targets. Climate change is already harming us, physically, mentally, and economically, we must not exacerbate it and cause needless suffering.

It is due to these reasons that Bill 212, Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024, must not be passed. Instead, more effort should be put into helping alternatives to cars such as buses and bikes. These latter two are good for Ontarians, Ontario's economy, and Ontario's environment.