Nearly 17.5 thousand people signed petition to shut down Highway 413 in Ontario

About 17,500 people have now signed a petition asking the federal government to intervene and stop Ontario’s plans to build Highway 413.

The David Suzuki Foundation first launched a petition last year to stop the proposed highway, asking Canada’s environment and climate change minister to stop the project.

“The highways need to be subject to federal impact assessments, so I’m telling Minister (Stephen) Guilbeau, ‘We need to look into this. This is a serious issue and we need to look into it.’ Gideon Forman, a transportation policy analyst at the David Suzuki Foundation, told CTV News Toronto.

“Ontarians love their Greenbelt and don’t want to see a new megahighway destroying part of it.”

Foreman said the foundation has been in contact with state governments, but officials have not listened to their concerns.

“They claim they need this highway. Well, we don’t.

The proposed six-lane, 52-kilometer road was a key campaign promise of the Doug Ford Progressive Conservative Party. Their proposal would move the highway from Halton to the York area, connecting it to highways 401, 407 and 410.

The Ontario government says it will save commuters driving time by about 30 minutes.

But supporters have argued that the government is downplaying the environmental impact of the new highway, and Forman agrees.

He said the highway will not only destroy hundreds of acres of farmland in southern Ontario, but it will affect multiple animal species.

“It crosses many rivers and endangers the fish and other animals that live in these river valleys,” he said. “Part of the highway goes just north of Toronto. There aren’t many forests, forests, or swamps left in the north, so the idea of ​​pavement over them is absurd.”

“Another part from a direct selfish perspective is crossing rivers such as the Humber and Credit into Lake Ontario, the source of drinking water for Toronto and many other communities.”

A report published in October 2022 by Canadian environmental advocacy group Environment Defense identified at least 29 “federally-identified endangered species” affected by highways.

The report also says that the proposed highway will cross about 132 streams and rivers and lose about 400 acres of “significant natural areas and/or greenbelt land.”

“While Highway 413 pushes the region’s endangered species further into the brink, we are in the midst of a global biodiversity crisis. We call it the second mass extinction, and Highway 413 will accelerate it,” said Keith Brooks, program director for conservation, in a statement. “It is unwilling.”

The government said the highway’s preferred route was chosen “to minimize the impact on the greenbelt.”

In May 2021, the federal government will designate Route 413 under the Impact Assessment Act, a bill that gives the federal government authority to assess how climate change could be impacted by projects. decided to

A spokesperson for Guilbeault’s office told CTV News Toronto that the impact assessment agency is waiting for the state to submit a description of the highway before starting a review.

“Through the impact assessment process, the agency will gather scientific and indigenous knowledge and receive feedback from the public and stakeholders,” the spokesperson said.

“At the end of the impact assessment process, the agency will make recommendations as to whether the project should proceed as planned.”

Meanwhile, the Ontario government has provided a draft description of the project to the federal government and said it is working on a final submission.

“This is a complex process and we are working diligently to meet the requirements so that our plans to build Highway 413 can be realized as soon as possible,” said Department of Transportation spokesperson Dakota Brazier. “Throughout our environmental assessment, we will continue to develop improvements and mitigations to minimize the potential impacts identified in the project.”

Brasier added that Ontarians “voted overwhelmingly in favor of the government’s plan to build critical infrastructure like Highway 413.”

It’s not yet clear what the toll for Route 413 will be.

An analysis of data by Environics Analytics conducted in May before the state elections showed that highway-impacted rides consisted primarily of voters driving more than the state average of 22,073 kilometers per year. I was.