I am an Ontario resident and…

I am an Ontario resident and am strongly opposed to proposed Bill 212 Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, until the provisions regarding removing the bike lanes from Toronto’s Yonge Street, Bloor Street, and University Avenue, are deleted from the bill.

There are many reasons why this bill should not proceed as written. It is a gross overstep of jurisdiction into municipal affairs, setting the stage for the handicapping of cities and communities everywhere to be subject to the whims of the Province. It is laughably in opposition to this administration's purported goal of slashing red tape: now, every time any city throughout Ontario wants to make a decision about their own transportation infrastructure, it needs to be studied at taxpayer expense by the Province. It defies proven data about congestion, with cycling actually proven to reduce congestion, emergency services wait times, and vehicle maintenance. It is against the Province’s own planning goals - with no safe bike lanes, how are we to increase housing density when none of those new tenants can get around the downtown?
But the most crucial and obvious argument against this portion of this bill, is that cycle lanes save lives.
Toronto invested in saving those lives with a visionary planning and installation project that saw continuous bike lanes on the city’s main thoroughfares, and now not only would this bill undo millions of dollars of studied municipal infrastructure, it would spend even more untold millions of Ontario taxpayer dollars to do so. There hasn't even been a cost published by the Province for this work, and yet the bill is being rushed through.
The provision proposing the removal of the Yonge, Bloor, and University cycle lanes was snuck in ten days after the full bill was released and the 30 day comment period opened, leaving less time for study and comment by both Ontarians and their representatives. This underhanded is par for the course with Doug Ford’s leadership, demonstrating abhorrence for due process, but also his disrespect and contempt for the citizens he's supposed to be working for, and his colleagues in the legislature debating this bill today.
Not to mention even more costs when injuries happen, but we all know that one death is one too many. I beg you to remove these two clauses from this legislation, and prevent further deaths and catastrophic injuries.

Sincerely,

Deeply Concerned Ontario resident