The great thing about being a member of the Green Party is that sometimes, there are issues with easy answers. For instance, take the issue of Doug Ford’s proposed Highway 413. This new highway would stretch from Vaughan to Mississauga, connecting the 400, 401 and 407 Highways. It’s not a new idea, as Kathleen Wynne’s administration was considering just such a project back in 2005, and some might say that it’s a solid bulletpoint for Doug Ford’s re-election campaign. It’s also a plan that would involve cutting through the Greenbelt, an otherwise-protected area of natural greenery in the north of the Golden Horseshoe Area. You can probably imagine how I feel about such a project, but it’s worth discussing why Highway 413 is a bad idea and what can be done in its place.
No one wants this highway
I’m hardly the first member of the Green Party to condemn Highway 413. Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario since 2009, referred to the project as “paving over paradise” and called attention to the number of acres of farmland lost to highway projects. He’s hardly alone in his condemnations, as Steven Del Duca of the Liberal Party and Jennifer French of the NDP issued scathing statements of their own about the cost and environmental impact of such a highway. Even the Minister of Environment, Johnathan Wilkinson, raised an eyebrow, claiming that there were “clear areas of federal concern” that warranted a federal-level impact assessment of the planned highway.
This isn’t just partisan sniping. The two municipalities this project will most effect, Mississauga and Brampton, are not happy with the project. Environmental activists are not happy with the project. Our own Minister of Environment is not happy with the project. The only people who are happy
with Highway 413 are Ford voters and the wealthy families and organizations with ties to Ford and his Tories, and the former are not likely to get what they actually want out of the project. The cost-to-benefit ratio on this highway is staggeringly low for most Ontarians. At best, this proposed route might save blue-collar workers 30 minutes on their commute. “Might” being the operative word.
Consider the environmental impact
Let’s talk about the environmental impacts of Highway 413 for a moment. In this case, we have solid numbers to examine; 2,000 acres of farmland would be razed, 85 waterways would be cut across, 400 acres of Greenbelt land would be paved, 220 wetlands would be disrupted and 10 at-risk species would have their habitats threatened. If you heard those numbers in a movie, you would laugh off as shoddy writing. How could we pave over 2,000 acres of farmland? How much food does 2,000 acres of food produce? But these numbers are accurate. The Greenbelt is one of our greatest achievements as far as the protection of Canadian land is concerned. This is simply what happens when a project cuts into it.
There are other environmental concerns to consider in addition to the loss of protected land. For instance, let’s consider the carbon cost. If Highway 413 was to be completed, Environmental Defense suggests that the increased vehicle traffic could see Canada produce 17.4 million extra tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Not exactly compatible with our nation’s current Net-Zero goals, or conducive to the health of our planet. Moreover, this is in addition to the amount of carbon generated by constructing the highway in the first place, or the health impacts of to both the local wildlife and to the people of the region. These are serious numbers, numbers we cannot afford, and it would be quite frankly irresponsible of our Premier to pursue a project with this kind of environmental standpoint.
There are better alternatives
It would be rude of me to entirely discount the blue-collar workers who would support this project. One well-known refrain, “the QEW is a parking lot,” expresses a lot of working-class frustration with congested roads and lengthy travel times. Many of Doug Ford’s supporters live in regions where it simply isn’t feasible to bike everywhere, due to distance and road infrastructure. Their concerns are valid, but as I said above, Highway 413 is not going to solve their problems. The simple fact of the matter is that expanding highways results in expanding car usage, leading inevitably to the same types of congestion that frustrate the blue-collar advocates of 413 today. It even has a name; “induced demand.”
So what’s my solution? Well, why don’t we use the billions of dollars currently being funnelled into Highway 413 into other domestic infrastructure projects? Expand rail lines like the GO Train, where track conditions are in dire need of improvement. Encourage ride-sharing and carpooling. Where applicable, expand bike lanes and bicycle infrastructure. There are a lot of projects that could use the expanded funding and resources that Doug Ford is dedicating to Highway 413, with less of a carbon cost associated with them.
We don’t need more cars on the road. We really don’t need to carve up the Greenbelt and fill it with asphalt. We need to protect our environment. If nothing else, we need to make sure that our government’s solutions don’t create more problems than they solve.
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