I wish to comment on two…

I wish to comment on two aspects of this proposal.

1) SCHEDULE 3, HIGHWAY 413 ACT, 2024: Exempting Highway 413 — a road that nobody but the Premier's sponsors wants — from environmental review is immensely short-sighted. In doing so, the Province invites creative, expensive and time-consuming protests from First Nations and concerned citizens. Everything about Highway 413 is counter to our commitments to reduce carbon-based emissions.

2) SCHEDULE 4, HIGHWAY TRAFFIC ACT: It is utterly ridiculous (but entirely on-brand) that the Premier is directing his Minister of Transportation to limit bike lane construction because one bike lane in the west end of Toronto has infringed upon the Premier's viewshed as he is driven in his oversized vehicle on the occasional days that he chooses to work. Active transportation is a critical part of keeping a city moving efficiently. It is personal motor vehicles that cause slowdowns, not bike lanes.

I am a frequent user of the lanes on Danforth Avenue and Eglinton Avenue East. On my bicycle on the Danforth Avenue lane and as a slightly overweight 55 year old, I can keep pace with motor traffic. We — cyclists and motorists — are often stopped by parked delivery trucks or idling construction vehicles. It's not me on my bike who is holding anyone up. I pay as much tax to cycle on the bike lane as the motor vehicles do to travel in their lane: and yet they cause much more road damage, pollution and many more injuries to other road users. To require more Provincial oversight of bike lines in the same legislation that expects less oversight of a multi-billion dollar futile concrete highway is not a good use of anyone's time and money, and makes the Province a laughing-stock internationally.

Please reconsider these inept pieces of legislation.