Vaughan Council eyes feasibility of Highway 407 buyback amid growing opposition to Highway 413

The rushed passage of controversial Bill 212 by the PC government has ignited further opposition to Highway 413, which Premier Doug Ford continues to champion, despite mounting evidence of the environmental destruction it will cause and the lack of impact it will have on the GTA’s growing traffic woes. 

At a rally against the highway in Vaughan, hosted by advocacy group Stop the 413 on November 29, member of the group George Westel told The Pointer that he sees the construction of the highway as “a big assault on the environment and the planning acts, which have been basically stripped and become a system of MZOs and political decision making.”

The rally brought together residents from Toronto, Vaughan, and Simcoe County, and took place outside Bellvue Manor, where Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria was scheduled to speak at the Vaughan Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Summit.

Protestors gathered outside Bellvue Manor to show opposition to the environmentally destructive Highway 413 project.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

“It's not even a political issue. It's just an issue that everybody can relate to,” Vaughan resident and intern with Vaughan Councillor Marilyn Iafrate, Alexis Pignalosa, said, urging the government to focus on unlocking the potential of the Highway 407 corridor to ease congestion and improve mobility across the region.

As previously reported by The Pointer, Environmental Defence and Transport Action Ontario have been pressuring the government to consider a subsidy for truck drivers to offset the costs of 407 tolls. A study estimated that covering the full toll costs for trucks would amount to $4 billion—far less than the estimated cost of Highway 413, which the provincial government has yet to disclose, but could be as high as $10 billion.

Pignalosa says it’s “definitely frustrating” to watch traffic congestion in the region worsen while the Ford government remains steadfast in pursuing expensive, environmentally destructive projects, ignoring alternatives that could address the issue without the same high costs or environmental impact.

She says young people like herself are beginning to realize that in order to secure basic things—like owning a home, getting a job, raising a family, and simply affording to live in the province—they will need to “really advocate for themselves.” 

This sense of urgency is what drove her to attend the rally on a bitterly cold November morning, with temperatures hovering just above freezing.

She wasn’t the only young person in the group. Vaughan resident and Stop the 413 member, Sonia Fiorini, who studied environmental planning and has worked with an engineering consultancy, says it is “disheartening” to see the province's push to weaken conservation authorities and rush through new construction projects.

Sonia Fiorini at the Vaughan protest late last month.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

Fiorini, who comes from a family of construction workers and is generally pro-development, emphasizes that maintaining strong planning practices in Ontario is more crucial than ever. She believes the Ford government is undermining these practices at a time when the existing infrastructure is sufficient to meet the Region’s needs.

For grandmother of three and member of Grandmothers Act to Save the Planet (GASP), Victoria Creese, the fight against Highway 413 is deeply personal. 

Members of STOP THE 413 NOW outside Bellvue Manor in Vaughan on November 29.

(Anushka Yadav/The Pointer)

“It's scary when my grandchildren can't go out to play, when there's smoke in the air, or when it's too hot to be in the classroom. I need to make sure that they have a better life,” she said. “I want to leave them a planet with clean air and clean water…The 413 is going to emit more greenhouse gases, and we don’t want that. It’s unnecessary, and it will pave over forests and wetlands that act as vital carbon sinks.”

Creese’s grandchildren are her main motivation in the fight for a cleaner, healthier environment.

Multiple studies and previous investigations by The Pointer have revealed Highway 413 would destroy vital habitats and disrupt critical wildlife corridors in the Humber River, Etobicoke Creek, and Credit River watersheds, threatening 29 at-risk species, including the Western Chorus Frog and Red-headed Woodpecker. 

It would also more than double the impervious surface in the Etobicoke Creek headwaters, worsening flooding in areas like Brampton, which already faces flood management challenges. In the Credit River watershed, home to 65 at-risk species, urgent conservation and restoration are needed—before even considering the highway's impact.

A study by Environmental Defence revealed Highway 413 could generate more than 17 million tonnes of additional carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, undermining Canada's commitment to achieving net-zero emissions. This could also impede the country's progress in meeting its climate targets, particularly the 2030 emissions goal set by the Paris Agreement, which calls for a 30 percent reduction from 2005 levels.

“If we don't lower our emissions now, we're going to be headed for a very scary future for my grandkids, so I feel compelled to act on their behalf,” she said, her voice resolute as she braved the cold for over an hour at the rally. 

It is not just members of the public urging the government to consider alternatives. 

On December 3, Vaughan Council moved forward with a motion introduced by Councillor Iafrate and Ward 3 Councillor Rosanna DeFrancesca, supporting a feasibility study to explore the potential buyback of Highway 407. 

In 1999, the Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government sold Highway 407 for $3.1 billion to a consortium that included SNC-Lavalin, Quebec's provincial pension fund, and the Spanish company Ferrovial.

The highway is currently owned by the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, the Crown corporation responsible for public employees retirement and Old Age Security (OAS) and Ferrovial subsidiary, Cintra, a publicly-traded Spanish toll road and parking lot company.

The Province owns a 22-kilometre stretch of Highway 407 on its eastern side, where tolls are significantly lower compared to the private section of the highway.

A representative from Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria's office told The Pointer that the PC government has “been in conversation with the 407.” The subject of those discussions remains unknown. 

Environmental Defence’s Executive Director, Tim Gray, sees this as the “very first time” the province has provided “some recognition” that opening the 407 offers a “better alternative” to constructing a “destructive highway.”

“I think the public demand, the science evidence, the First Nation concerns about their consultation, all these things are coming together,” Gray said in an interview with The Pointer during the late November rally. “Maybe, we can get the federal government, provincial government together and solve this issue in a way that helps to address transportation needs, gridlock, and doesn't perpetuate building more sprawl-inducing highways.”

However, during the council meeting on Tuesday, it was emphasized multiple times that the province has not engaged in any discussions with the owners of 407 ETR on buying the highway back.

The motion also called for the PCs to implement a one-year pilot program that would either subsidize or eliminate tolls on dedicated truck lanes along the highway, with the goal of evaluating the impact on traffic congestion and overall efficiency.

The hope is for “Getting Vaughan Moving Again” which is not far from Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s vision of “Reducing Gridlock.”

However, while Ford’s vision is being pursued through the controversial passage of Bill 212—described by critics as “draconian”—which accelerates the construction of Highway 413, Iafrate and DeFrancesca are focusing on improving the existing 407 corridor, particularly by reducing high tolls and reducing truck traffic on Highway 7 and 401.

DeFrancesca, who has long advocated for buying back Highway 407—a position she outlined in her 2010 campaign literature—expressed her support for Premier Ford's plan to build highways to reduce congestion and improve mobility during the council meeting on Tuesday. “I’ve always supported that,” she notes. “But I still think that we can look at this pilot project in the interim, while these highways are getting built…If we get the data, then we can make better decisions moving forward.”

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