Comments on Bill 212 -…

Comments on Bill 212 - Reducing Gridlock, Saving Your Time Act, 2024
(Please replace this version with a previous version I submitted earlier this evening. I noticed some typos and some omissions. This version reads better and more clearly represents my views and concerns. Thanks.)

I am a senior living in Toronto. I'm also a cyclist who worked for 30 years as an Ontario provincial civil servant. For most of my 30 years I cycled to work. As a former civil servant, I know well the Provincial Government has the power to override local democracy, this government has done it several times before in the City of Toronto. Having the power to do something, is different from having the moral authority to do it. Each time the provincial government arbitrarily interferes it makes citizens more cynical about government. It would seem the provincial government does not trust municipalities to know what is needed and wanted in their communities. One would wonder when the Ontario government will decide to abolish municipalities outright. It would appear that the Ontario government does not believe citizens are capable of knowing how they want their local communities to be run.

As a retired person - 66 years old, I still cycle daily for shopping, volunteering, and visiting and caring for friends. If Bill 212 is passed and receives Royal Assent it will put me in danger. Several times a week, I visit a 97-year-old friend who lives in a downtown Long-Term Care Home. I live in East York (Toronto). I use the bike lanes on Danforth and Bloor to visit my elderly friend with dementia. So, your Bill 212 will force the City of Toronto to rip up these lanes than help to ensure my safety. The Ontario Government wants bike lanes on secondary roads, but I wonder how I will cross the Don River without going on a major road. Does my safety not matter to your government. It would seem not. This Bill is ‘Dog Whistle’ politics. The Ontario Government’s version of the ‘Culture Wars.’ It puts the safety of a minority group - cyclists up for debate. To save motorists a few minutes my safety and the safety of all cyclists is up for grabs.

I am opposed to Bill 212. It is a prime example of overreach on the part of a higher level of government – provincial, that unilaterally takes away democratic control from a lower level - municipalities. I never elected the Premier to run the city of Toronto. If the Premier wants to be the Mayor of Toronto, he should run but stop trying to run it from his office at Queens Park, The Ontario government should start respecting local decision making. The location and placement of Bike Lanes is a local issue, and logic would state that it is best managed by local government, which is the closet to the people and the issue. I elected a Mayor and a City Councillor, not an MPP, to deal with the local issues in my city and neighbourhood. Bike lanes should be a municipal responsibility. Good governance calls for the control by that level of government closest to the issue. Bill 212 is arbitrary and is one sided, it is aimed at motor vehicle drivers to the detriment of cyclists. Why are cyclists being pitted against motorists? Why this zero sum game? Why are MPPs at Queens Park dealing with this issue? I would think their would-be plenty issues on the Ontario Government’s plate such as people having a doctor and a home to live in. How the local traffic flows in neighbourhoods in the city of Toronto wouldn’t be one of them. Bill 212 makes no sense. Its interference with the running of municipalities. Did the municipalities come to the province asking for the placement and control of bike lanes to be uploaded to the Ontario Government? Bill 212 makes no sense other than as a distraction from what the provincial should be working on. Stop the meddling.