As a cyclist, driver, parent…

As a cyclist, driver, parent, and resident of Toronto, I find Bill 212 (ERO 019-9266) very troubling. Municipal bike lanes are not, and should not be within the jurisdiction of the provincial government, and the provincial government should be focused on bigger picture issues, like the crisis in healthcare and public schools, or even just delivering the transit projects the province already has in progress, like the Ontario Line, and the Eglinton Crosstown Line. My impression is that mismanagement of project delivery by Metrolinx has been a substantial contributor to gridlock in Toronto, and it would be great to see the province take a hard look at that instead of focusing on bike lanes. Removing the existing bike lanes would be a substantial waste of taxpayer money, just like fast-tracking the deal to get alcoholic beverages into convenience and grocery stores was.

Bill 212 includes all kinds of disparate pieces that trouble me, like providing an exemption from the Environmental Assessment Act for Highway 413, and other measures to remove typical checks and balances on a project that will remove farmland, damage wetlands and restructure a major piece of Southern Ontario. It feels like this bike lane removal proposal is a bad faith attempt to distract from the 413 proposal. Premier Ford’s land swap is already under investigation by the RCMP, and I have no faith that he has the best interests of Ontarians at heart. It seems likely that the 413 is being built to enrich developers, when a real attempt at reducing congestion would look at repatriating the 407. It would be more democratic if we could comment on all the issues in Bill 212 separately. I think improving rural internet is a great idea, and a good way to encourage people to move to less competitive housing markets, but I really don’t like that it’s part of an omnibus bill.