I hope that many other…

I hope that many other Ontarians will join me in voicing our disapproval of Bill 212.
The issue of provincial overreach into municipal jurisdiction (bike lanes) is concerning and has been widely reported in the news. What is a much bigger concern though, is the other 27 pages of the bill that clearly lay out the provincial government's plan to exempt "priority highway projects" including highway 413 from the Environmental Assessment Act, the Access to Information Act, and to deny procedural fairness to any Ontarians unlucky enough to be affected by the construction of these misguided projects.

What, if anything, is the point of having an Environmental Assessment Act if the provincial government can simply ignore these statutes when it deems the project a "priority"? Your constituents trust you to do everything in your power to ensure that they have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and viable lands in which to grow crops and enjoy nature. I urge you to take this responsibility seriously.

The Information and Privacy Commisioner has addressed access to information exemptions proposed in the Bill in her letter, which I've linked. I agree and urge our lawmakers to reconsider.

I am particularly disturbed by the callousness with which the provincial government intends to conduct expropriations in the interest of rushing to build these highways. This bill, if enacted, would require Ontarians whose property is deemed necessary to build these highways to vacate their property within 90 days, and offers no process for appeal nor leniency on timelines. This draconian methodology is not how Ontario taxpayers expect to be treated by a government that claims to have their best interests in mind.

Lastly, I wish to make it clear to our elected representatives that the people of Ontario are not fooled by the title of this bill. We know that the proposed infrastructure projects will not reduce gridlock nor save anyone time. Highway 413 will be then next highway 407: a costly taxpayer-funded project that will be sold to a private entity at a massive loss and that will go largely unused because no one will want to pay the ridiculously high tolls that will be imposed. Tearing up bike lanes will not reduce gridlock in the city of Toronto nor anywhere else. It will do the opposite.

I firmly believe that our current government knows that there are better ways to move people through major metropolitan areas, but they are looking for easy wins. These highways won't be completed before the next provincial election but they may be started whereas expansions of train networks that would actually have a positive effect would still be in the distant future by election time (especially if environmental assessments are done properly).

Do the right thing folks. Be honest with your voters, abandon costly and useless highway projects and start building infrastructure that supports high quality, economically and environmentally sustainable modes of transportation.