By Benjamin Hargreaves, Digital Content and Social Media Manager, Water Docs.
The proposed route of the new 400-series highways. Courtesy of Ontario.ca.
By now, GTA residents have most assuredly heard of the new 400 series highways that are being proposed for construction by the current provincial government. The roadways would connect Vaughn to Halton in a bid to improve transportation infrastructure for drivers as the city expands.
Photo Courtesy: https://producemadesimple.ca/a-holland-marsh-tour/
One of the biggest problems with this project is that much of the proposed 59 kilometre roadway would cut right through the Holland Marsh. The marsh, nicknamed “Ontario's vegetable patch,” produces over 66 varieties of vegetables and is responsible for feeding 75 percent of Ontario and 65 percent of Canada, according to Jody Mott, executive director of the Holland Marsh Growers' Association (HMGA).
Photo Courtesy: https://reflectivethoughtsbybarbara.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-holland-marsh-ontario.html
"We call it the Holland Marsh Highway because it goes straight through the Holland Marsh and because it will destroy wetlands and significant wildlife habitat in the Holland Marsh," Jack Gibbons, chair of Lake Simcoe Watch, said in an interview with the CBC.
What’s more, there is already a 400 series highway in that area. Highway 400 runs north from Vaughn to Sudbury cutting through about four kilometres of the southwestern tip of the marshland. The proposed projects would only further increase the devastation the Holland Marsh already faces.
This project is not a new idea. Over the last couple of decades, it has been approved and then abandoned depending on what political party happened to be in power. Because of the project’s storied past, much of the data around it is outdated and this is where the biggest issues with the proposal lie.
Photo Credit: Brigitte Voigtlander
https://www.viewbug.com/photo/69078703
An environmental assessment of the proposed construction area was originally conducted back in 1997 and it is still the one being used today. Many critics of the project are calling this assessment outdated and unfit to guide a construction project nearly 24 years after the assessment was originally conducted. However, the Ford Government is hoping to exempt the project from needing a reassessment as a way of speeding up the project.
"It would also put more cars and trucks on the road, at a time when the federal government has pledged to cut carbon emissions from transportation. But without a proper environmental assessment, we won’t know these impacts until it’s too late. If the province won't protect our environment, the federal government needs to step in now," said Sarah Buchanan, Ontario Climate Program Manager at Environmental Defence to Newmarket Today.
Photo Courtesy: Environmental Defence
Environmental Defence is one of the many environmental organizations lobbying for a proper environmental assessment to be conducted. They are urging the Ontario Progressive Conservatives to reconsider the impacts of this project and are also asking the Federal Minister of Environment and Climate, Jonathan Wilkinson, to step in.
“These new highways would cost billions of dollars, have devastating impacts on the forests, farms, wetlands, rivers and communities that they bulldoze through, threaten endangered species, and in the case of the 413 would save drivers less than a minute on their commute. If the province won’t take these threats seriously, then we need the federal government to step in. The federal government can, and should, designate these destructive projects for full federal environmental assessments,” reads the Environmental Defence petition on their website.
All Canadians are invited to voice their concern about this project and ask that a proper environmental assessment be conducted. Sign the petition here.
If you’d like to take further action you can find a collection of actionable items on the Halton Hills Climate Action website.
The proposed route of the Bradford bypass, otherwise known as the Holland Marsh Highway. Courtesy of Ecojustice.