Ford, transport minister make string of misleading claims as Highway 413 construction ‘begins’

Any mention of Highway 413, first proposed almost a quarter-century ago as a massive transportation corridor immediately below and through parts of Ontario’s protected Greenbelt, has always been accompanied by a giant question mark.

Claimed by supporters to be a solution to congestion in the Greater Toronto Area, the project has been mired in political wrangling between successive Liberal and PC governments.

That did not stop some of Ontario’s most powerful developers from buying up huge tracts of farmland along the highway’s proposed route in and around the Greenbelt, in hopes of a ten-fold increase in value if (or when) the project was approved.

After PC supporters and Party leaders first floated the idea in the ‘90s, with the encouragement of builders who have for decades had their eye on southern Caledon’s vast rural stretches abutting on the Greenbelt, planning for a highway that would catalyze lucrative sprawl development began in the mid-2000s, with the Ontario Liberal government under premier Dalton McGuinty officially proposing the corridor in 2007.

Environmental assessment (EA) work started soon after, but was suspended in 2015. In February 2018, Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government shelved the project entirely following the findings of an expert advisory panel which found it would do nothing to solve the GTA’s crippling traffic congestion and the money would be better spent on effective transportation solutions including high-order transit.

Many other questions hung over the contentious plan: who would even use a commuter highway connecting Milton to north-Vaughan; wouldn’t the 407 be a better alternative for commercial trucks; how much would it cost?

Just months after the 2018 provincial election, following Doug Ford’s campaign promise to developers, that he would open a “big chunk” of the Greenbelt if they helped him win, the new Premier had the project revived, announcing the resumption of the EA process in November of that year, getting rid of all traces of the expert panel’s 2018 report.

It was filled with detailed analysis answering many of the questions, showing Highway 413 would only save commuters 30 seconds and would eventually lead to even worse congestion. Ford, who was forced to apologize for his Greenbelt promise made to a room full of developers (caught on a hidden camera), had the report quietly removed from the provincial government website. 

Seven years later, on August 27, with STOPTHE413 signs lining the road and truck horns blaring in support of the opposition, Ford, unphased, announced at a Caledon press conference that construction was “beginning” on the controversial highway. 

His popularity had slumped two years ago when a land-swap scandal broke after PC staffers took direction from developers whose acquired Greenbelt lands were then approved by Ford’s government for residential construction.

Without the land-swap scheme to dramatically increase the value of land bought by developers, critics highlighted that the 413, even if it served no legitimate transportation purpose, would increase the value of the purchased agricultural properties by as much as ten times.     

“Work is beginning to resurface Highway 10 in preparation for a new bridge over the future Highway 413,” Ford’s PC government announced two weeks ago. “Crews will also soon begin upgrades at the Highway 401/407 interchange, which will be the western terminus of Highway 413.”

“Once Highway 413 is complete, it will run from the Highway 401/407 interchange near Mississauga, Milton and Halton Hills to Highway 400 in Vaughan, with extensions to Highways 410 and 427.”

That’s only partially true.

Both Ford and Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria made questionable claims during the announcement: Highway 413 will shorten travel times by up to 30 minutes per trip, generate over $1 billion in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during construction and create more than 6,000 jobs annually.

“Highway 413 will protect our workers and will help us stand up to President Trump; it will deliver on our plan to build a stronger, more prosperous Ontario for decades to come,” Ford claimed.

Are the claims true?

“No, it's propaganda from the provincial government,” Environmental Defence executive director Tim Gray told The Pointer.

“How does increasing gridlock, longer commute times, and reduced productivity help Ontario or Canada compete with the U.S.?...There’s no path to solving this without massive investment in public transit.”

In May, GO transit expansion, which included a 25-year operating agreement between Metrolinx and a private consortium, was quietly cancelled with the PC government having offered no public explanation, and staff working on the project have reportedly been let go.

“Ontario is doubling down on a 1950s or 1960s transportation model of highway expansion, even though everyone else in the developed world knows it’s a failure,” Gray said, noting the proposed route for Highway 413 already fails to address the most heavily congested commuter corridors in the region.

The highway runs roughly 52 kilometres between the Highway 401/407 interchange near Milton and Highway 400 in Vaughan, largely skirting the northern and northwestern edges of the GTA, bypassing major employment and population centers like downtown Toronto, Mississauga, and central Brampton, where the bulk of daily commuter traffic originates and terminates. 

Instead, it arcs through areas on the rural–urban fringe, with limited direct access to where most people actually live or work.

 

There is currently very little commuter demand for the 413 route. The highway will run roughly through the corridor highlighted in light yellow. The dark blue route uses existing highways to get commuters between the two ends where the highway would start and stop.

(Google Satellite) 

 

When the GTA West Advisory Panel, appointed by the Ontario Liberals in 2017, reviewed the potential impacts of the project, it concluded that the highway would save drivers just 30 to 60 seconds per trip, a far cry from the figure touted by Ford and Sarkaria. 

These findings were a key reason the project was shelved in 2018.

The panel also identified a more cost-effective and immediate alternative: using toll incentives to shift traffic, especially trucks, onto the underutilized Highway 407, which already runs parallel to the proposed 413 route, just 15 kilometres to the south.

“The underused Highway 407 follows the same east-west route as the proposed 413, which would run just 15 km south of the 407. A better solution to reduce traffic on Highway 401, and to save truckers time and money, would be to get trucks onto the 407,” a 2023 Environmental Defence report noted. 

The idea of removing tolls for trucks on Highway 407 has long been floated as an alternative. It was included in the Ontario New Democratic Party’s (NDP) 2022 election platform and resurfaced in November 2023 after Environmental Defence reported that doing so could save transport truck drivers up to 80 minutes in travel time.

But in 2024, the PCs voted down an NDP motion that would have removed tolls for commercial truck traffic on the 407. 

On August 27, Ford once again confirmed he had no intention of pursuing the idea.

 

On February 29, 2024, Ontario Green party leader Mike Schreiner also proposed subsidizing truck tolls on Highway 407 and cancelling Highway 413 construction.

(Legislative Assembly of Ontario)

 

The Ford government has also floated purchasing Highway 407. 

“All options are on the table — maybe both…We’ll conduct a feasibility study, look at the 407, and determine which direction we’re going,” he said, when asked whether the province was considering buying back Highway 407 to ease congestion on Highway 401, during a press conference on October 2.

But the owners told The Pointer they have had no conversations with the province about a buyback.

“We regularly meet with the Ontario government to explore opportunities to alleviate congestion across the region, though we’ve not been engaged in any conversations about a buyback,” a statement shared with The Pointer emphasized.

“We look forward to continuing to fulfill our mandate and delivering value to Ontario for decades to come.”

NDP leader Marit Stiles criticized the PCs for ignoring more feasible options and focusing on a project without a timeline or price tag.

In 2024, when the Ford government said it would start building Highway 413 by 2025, there was no final design for the project, no finished environmental assessment and no planned opening date. The project was also being considered by the federal government for a full impact assessment due to the damage it will cause to both environmentally sensitive habitats and indigenous heritage. The federal government dismissed the idea last year, merely creating a task force to work alongside the province through a task force to mitigate the issues. The process has been opaque with little indication of any progress made to date to avoid the most damaging impacts of the highway on land inhabited by nearly 30 species at risk, according to an investigation by The Pointer.  

To signal progress, the PCs promoted what they called the beginning of construction on August 27. 

What’s actually underway is not the highway itself, but a series of limited infrastructure upgrades referred to as “early works.”

“There are two phases to this project. The early works, which are now under construction, and the main highway. What’s interesting is how the early works were chosen specifically to avoid triggering federal approvals,” Ecojustice lawyer Laura Bowman told The Pointer. 

Back in July 2020, the PCs proposed exempting the GTA West (Highway 413) project from completing a full environmental assessment before beginning “early works,” without clearly defining what those works would entail.

Regulatory agencies warned that the lack of clarity made it difficult to ensure protection of natural heritage features such as fish habitat and migratory bird corridors. The Province’s proposal suggested early works could include watercourse crossings and bridge construction, yet there was no communication with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans about potential fish habitat disruption.

Then, the Province also moved to exempt highways under 75 kilometres in length from the province’s individual environmental assessment process. 

This proposal raised alarms with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), which noted that Section 28 of the Conservation Authorities Act, usually applied to development in floodplains, doesn’t apply to the highway, and warned that without these safeguards, there’s no clear mechanism to protect life, property, or natural resources during the detailed design phase. 

Environmental experts and advocates warned that this approach failed to meet the objectives of the Environmental Assessment (EA) Act, undermining efforts to manage Ontario’s environment wisely.

The early works are now being carried out in areas that reportedly do not cross endangered species habitat or ecologically sensitive waterways, making it possible for the Province to proceed without seeking federal authorization, Bowman says.

This was made possible partly after the federal government officially dropped its impact assessment for Highway 413 on April 15, 2024. The decision, made after the Supreme Court of Canada set aside the project’s designation, meant Ottawa was no longer formally reviewing the environmental risks of the highway under federal impact assessment legislation. 

“By refusing to assess the many dangers Highway 413 would pose in areas of federal responsibility, Minister Guilbeault, Prime Minister Trudeau, and MPs in the government caucus are reducing the number of tools at their disposal to properly ensure the survival of federally protected endangered species, fish habitat and the cultural values of Indigenous Nations,” Gray said in a statement at the time.

 

In November, 121 scientists sent a letter to then–Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault, criticizing the “absence of federal action” on Highway 413 and warning that the project, which cuts through and borders Ontario’s Greenbelt, could harm at least 29 species at risk protected under provincial and federal laws. The highway could also impact roughly 122 bird species covered by the Migratory Birds Convention Act and disrupt fish habitats in over 100 waterways protected by the Fisheries Act.

(The Pointer Files)

 

A University of Guelph study by biologists Karl Heide and Ryan Norris found the highway would harm at least 29 species protected under the federal Species at Risk Act, including Blanding’s Turtle, Butternut, Redside Dace, Wood Thrush, Red-headed Woodpecker, and the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee. 

An investigation by The Pointer using the Province’s own Natural Heritage Mapping System confirmed the same number of at-risk species.

 

One of the key concerns related to the construction of Highway 413 is the Redside Dace, a federally protected species that will be severely impacted by the urban sprawl, pavement runoff and road construction the highway would bring. The government’s own Recovery Strategy for the Redside Dace identifies habitat loss from such projects as one of the species’ most immediate threats.

(Government of Ontario)

 

Instead, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada. 

“The two levels of government have established a joint working group in which provincial and federal officials will recommend appropriate measures to minimize environmental impacts in areas of federal environmental jurisdiction. This builds upon the province’s environmental assessment process, which is also well underway,” a provincial press release stated.

The federal-provincial working group for the Highway 413 project meets monthly and, since April 2024, has held 13 meetings, along with 12 additional meetings by the fisheries and terrestrial technical working groups.

“The working group will continue to meet until Environment and Climate Change Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada have either made decisions on authorizations or permits or have reached consensus with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation within their respective mandates in relation to the project,” a statement from the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada noted.

A federal protection order under the Species at Risk Act, originally due by January 25, 2025, was adopted in March, prohibiting habitat destruction in mapped areas where both the threatened American eel and the endangered Redside Dace live, including major sections of the Humber River and other waterways crossed by the planned Highway 413, making it illegal to build the parts of the highway that cross them.

In a presentation obtained through an Ecojustice Freedom of Information (FOI) request, it was revealed during the advisory group's December 2024 meeting that the project would “directly” impact 52 watercourses that support the fish.

 

 

A government briefing on Highway 413 from the advisory group, obtained by Ecojustice through a FOI request, revealed that the highway would affect seven provincially significant wetlands, 22 significant woodlands, five significant valleylands, one environmentally sensitive area, and pose risks to 12 species at risk.

(Government of Ontario)

 

But experts warned the federal government could still authorize habitat destruction through permits or simply fail to enforce the law, allowing harmful activities like urban sprawl to proceed without proper oversight.

Bowman believes the Ford government’s current strategy is to gain enough momentum to make the project politically and financially difficult to halt. 

“It appears to be a very deliberate move: to either start construction or at least appear to be starting construction, and then use that momentum to pressure the federal government to authorize the remainder of the highway,” she said.

“But I would not call this a done deal.”

She pointed to the Bradford Bypass project as a cautionary example, where “early works” were announced in 2022, but in reality, very little was actually built for years, with the Detailed Design work anticipated to be completed this Fall. 

 

The Bradford Bypass will cause devastating damage to the Holland River and its surrounding watersheds.

(Joel Wittnebel/The Pointer files)

 

A similar scenario may be unfolding with Highway 413.

“Some of these early works are just interchanges or overpasses at existing roads, like at Highway 410 or a boulevard connection. These can be constructed independently of the rest of the highway,” Bowman said.

Despite the Province’s insistence that no federal approvals are needed for the early works, documents obtained through FOI requests by Ecojustice and Environment Canada, and shared with The Pointer, suggest otherwise.

“There was correspondence where the province told the federal government, ‘we’re going ahead without your authorization,’ and the federal agencies replied saying, ‘we still need evidence that these works don’t trigger federal jurisdiction.’ But the province wasn’t willing to provide that evidence,” she explained.

In October, Environmental Defence sent a letter to the federal ministry of environment raising similar concerns, noting that some early works might still require federal approvals under the Fisheries Act, particularly if they impact Redside Dace habitat.

On November 25, 2024, the Ford government passed Bill 212, formally titled the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, which introduced the Highway 413 Act, exempting the project from Ontario’s Environmental Assessment Act, enabling expedited construction of early works, such as bridges and interchanges, before key environmental studies are completed. 

The law also granted the government sweeping powers, limiting public transparency, allowing 24-hour construction despite the risks to nocturnal wildlife, and making it more difficult for landowners to contest expropriation.

“As far as we know, those (federal) approvals have not been granted…it is possible that the early works are violating federal law,” Bowman noted, emphasizing the hidden financial risks, especially when early infrastructure work precedes federal approval.

“They’re spending money upfront, locking in massive costs for interchanges and other structures, before the highway is even fully approved. What happens if federal authorizations are delayed or rescinded? These isolated early works may sit unused for decades, incurring maintenance costs without delivering public benefit.”

Bowman says the Highway 404 extension serves as a cautionary tale where “we knew it wasn’t needed for another 30 years, yet construction started early. That means decades of unnecessary upkeep, a massive taxpayer burden.”

She also described the working group’s dynamics as deeply frustrating for federal officials.

“When I last spoke to officials who are on the working group with the federal government, they were very upset. They said, ‘Ontario, we only know what we read in the paper.’ That was in January…They don’t seem to have much faith in the working group process,” she said, noting that most access-to-information documents that Ecojustice received show the federal government repeatedly asking for updates, and Ontario “not effectively engaging”.

“I’m very concerned that as of a few months ago, federal engagement on the early works appeared incomplete, yet now there’s a press release claiming construction is starting.”

Bowman emphasizes the need for the federal government to assert its authority. 

“At some point, the federal government is going to have to decide whether they continue along with this process, or start refusing approvals, and actually do their job on species at risk…I’d like to start seeing some of that, some real teeth, some real political backbone, to enforce their federal authorization process. We can’t have a process that’s just for show,” she said.

The Ford government has grouped Highway 413 with other major infrastructure projects, such as the Bradford Bypass, Highway 401 widening and the 401 tunnel expressway, as part of a broader $30 billion transportation plan. 

Despite repeated requests, the government has refused to break down the individual costs of these highway projects.

“We do not know how much this will cost. There is no transparency at all. We do not know the timeline. And keep in mind that all of his (Ford’s) projects have overrun budget. These are taxpayers dollars that we're using and to not be able to let the people of Ontario know how much this project will cost and how long it will cost, is not acceptable,” Liberal critic for transportation Andrea Hazell told The Pointer.

As part of the latest announcement, early works in Caledon include resurfacing a stretch of Highway 10, from just south of Old School Road to near Forks of the Credit Road, under a contract awarded to Mississauga-based Pave-Al Limited; engineering design is in progress for a new bridge that will eventually span the future Highway 413. 

Separate upgrades at the Highway 401/407 interchange, the planned western terminus of Highway 413, have been awarded to Fermar Paving Limited.

When The Pointer asked the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) how contracts for Highway 413’s early works were awarded and what the overall construction cost would be, the ministry responded that the contracts were awarded through a “competitive open tender process”. 

It added that “to protect the integrity of the tendering process for future construction contracts, the overall construction costs of the project are kept confidential.”

If the process of selecting and awarding contracts for Highway 413’s early works is already complete, it is unclear how disclosing the construction cost would compromise the integrity of any future tendering. 

“The government relies on Freedom of Information exemptions, and by the time the public receives the information, contracts have already been signed. That’s a real disservice to the public,” Bowman said.

“We need clearer Freedom of Information laws requiring full disclosure of costs for large public infrastructure projects, rather than allowing governments to hide behind contractual confidentiality.”

In 2022, Ontario’s Auditor General estimated the highway would cost at least $4 billion, and that the project was being prioritized against the advice of provincial experts.

Opposition parties and watchdog groups, including Environmental Defence, believe the true cost could range from $6 billion to $12 billion, particularly as inflation and construction costs rise.

Ford also claims that Highway 413 will generate over $1 billion in GDP and create 60,000 jobs. 

But it contradicts earlier projections from his own government and industry sources, which in 2021 estimated the highway would contribute up to $350 million in annual real GDP and support around 3,500 jobs annually. 

The inflated figure appears to reflect the broader economic impact of the entire infrastructure plan, rather than the specific contribution of the Highway 413 project alone.

During the press conference, he also repeated a dramatic figure, which originates from a 2024 study by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis (CANCEA), about the economic cost of gridlock, stating: “Gridlock is costing drivers and their families far too many wasted hours, and is costing our province…$56 billion every single year. And if we don't act, that number could reach nearly $145 billion a year by 2044.” 

The figure sounds alarming, but a closer look reveals it is built on speculative assumptions and worst-case scenarios that inflate the actual economic impact of congestion.

Ontario’s nominal GDP in 2023 was about $1.12 trillion, which means the $56 billion figure represents roughly five percent of the province’s entire economy. 

In the GTHA, the distortion is even greater: against a GDP of about $440 billion, the claim that congestion costs $44.7 billion suggests more than ten percent of the region’s output is lost to traffic jams. 

By comparison, a 2013 C.D. Howe Institute study pegged GTHA congestion costs at about $6 billion annually, around 2.5 percent of GDP at the time. Even allowing for growth in population and traffic, a fourfold increase in just over a decade strains credibility.

Not to forget, until as recently as November of last year, the Ford government was still citing a decade-old study that estimated congestion in the GTA costs the province $11 billion annually.

Projecting forward, the government’s $145 billion warning looks even shakier. 

Taken against today’s economy, that would mean congestion drains 13 percent of Ontario’s GDP. Adjusted for projected real growth, it would still equal almost nine percent of the province’s output in 2044, a level more consistent with a systemic economic crisis than a transportation challenge. 

The jump from the government’s earlier $11 billion estimate to $56 billion (and eventually $145 billion) is only possible by layering in indirect costs and speculative “opportunity costs” about what people might have done if they weren’t in traffic. 

“What if, instead of talking about how long we wait in our cars in traffic, we talked about how long we wait in line for a coffee…and what if we started to think about that as wasted time, as lost productivity?,” Shauna Brail, associate professor, director of the Institute for Management & Innovation (IMI), University of Toronto Mississauga said, noting the way of counting the cost of congestion as flawed, referring to a 2018 study that estimated the total value of time lost to “cappuccino congestion” costing consumers in the USA more than $4 billion annually.

Even if we take the $56 billion claim at face value, it’s important to put it in context. The GTA’s gross domestic product is about $440 billion, meaning that this alleged congestion cost amounts to roughly 12 percent of the region’s entire economic output, a wildly disproportionate figure. 

The $6-$11 billion range represents about 1.4-2.5 percent of regional GDP, a figure that, while significant, does not justify the scale of roadbuilding the PC government is proposing, especially given its limited long-term impact on congestion.

What the Ford government doesn’t factor into its highway pitch is the hidden price tag of climate inaction. 

Ontario’s own Financial Accountability Office warns that climate change could drive up public infrastructure costs by as much as $4.1 billion a year by century’s end, unless we start building smarter. 

The watchdog estimates that proactive adaptation could save taxpayers over $1 billion annually. 

A consulting firm hired by Environmental Defence found that Highway 413 alone would pump an extra 700,000 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere every year, adding up to 17.4 million tonnes by 2050. 

Transportation experts and urban planners have consistently shown that building new highways will not solve congestion and will make gridlock worse through induced demand: the phenomenon where building more roads leads to more driving, not less traffic.

Victor Doyle, the veteran planner and key architect of the Greenbelt legislation when he oversaw much of the planning work for the provincial government, has long warned Ontarians about what the PCs are doing.

“To help ‘pave’ the way, dust off decades-old 400 series highway proposals (413/Bradford By-pass) which had been rejected due to environmental impacts and a clear recognition they would do nothing to solve congestion problems—indeed only add to them,” he wrote in a 2022 op-ed published by The Pointer. 

“Then, severely weaken the Environmental Assessment Act by removing the requirement for a full EA for the giant 413 corridor, allow the Bradford Bypass to rely on a 25-year-old assessment, enable early works like bridges, restrict citizen participation and top off by gutting the Endangered Species Act and seriously undermining the Conservation Authorities Act.”

The 413 would run directly along a lengthy corridor that is one of the most ecologically sensitive areas in the province, where Greenbelt lands, other wetlands and a series of watersheds create valuable conditions for human and animal well-being, protecting delicate environmental balances that keep air, flora, fauna and water safe.

Doyle refuted PC claims about the various benefits the new 400-series highways will deliver: “This is contrary to the irrefutable evidence compiled by all sectors of civil society which confirms urban sprawl is ruining our environment, destroying our farmland and making us sicker—costing $10’s of billion a year in health care, congestion, and lost ecological goods and services—while cementing a structural infrastructure deficit as sprawl simply does not cover the life cycle costs of all its linear infrastructure. Moreover, sprawl is Ontario’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions and does not provide the types of housing that the majority of people can afford.”

What about the timeline for Highway 413?

“With every project that we have, we'll continue to get the procurements out. We'll continue to work with those in the industry to accelerate it, get it done as quickly as possible, but with every one of our projects, this is the first start of our early works, and we have every intention of using every resource possible to get it done as quickly as possible, as fast as possible, and get as many shovels in the ground as we can across the entire 52 kilometer stretch of this highway,” Ford said.

In reality, the Ontario government does not know when Highway 413 will be completed. According to an internal document obtained by The Narwhal in 2024, the project will likely take at least a decade to finish.

“It's another Greenbelt fiasco, and we saw this card played out before, and all who benefit from this is his insiders, developers and his donors,” Hazell said.

Before the Ford government reversed a controversial “developer-proposed” realignment of the highway earlier this year, internal government documents warned that such a change would result in major delays. 

A confidential briefing obtained by Global News shows the province considered shifting the Caledon section of the route by up to 600 metres in order to avoid two properties currently slated for housing development, lands owned by prominent developer Nick Cortellucci.

To accommodate those interests, the province considered eliminating or relocating the planned Chinguacousy Road interchange. But this wasn't a simple tweak. 

The internal document warned that any such realignment would require a full slate of additional fieldwork, consultations, and design changes, delaying the entire highway project by at least a year, and triggering a reassessment of the broader project timeline, requiring legislative amendments to the Highway 413 Act, since the proposed route change would fall outside the defined study area.

Caledon Mayor Annette Groves, who was elected to office on a platform that prominently opposed Highway 413 and emphasized protecting the town’s unique character, has since shifted her public stance on the controversial project.

 

 

"The Highway 413 corridor will be a big help for our villages by supporting the extension of Highway 410 and easing truck congestion on Highway 10, Caledon village and is a welcome addition to the folks in Valleywood. It will also spur the extension of Highway 427 and reduce the number of heavy trucks travelling on Highway 50,” Caledon Mayor Annette Groves said at the press conference.

(Premier of Ontario/YouTube) 

 

“This announcement marks a key step for the town towards achieving its goal and vision, and town staff will make every effort to support and work in partnership with the province to ensure the successful delivery of Highway 413 and mitigate any impacts to our community,” Groves said.

 

 

In 2021, then Caledon councillor Annette Groves offered alternatives to building Highway 413: “Hwy 413 is a Goods Movement Corridor and rather than building this highway, which will not solve gridlock, why not work with the Ontario Trucking Industry and subsidize the toll on Hwy 407 and allow goods to move on that east-west Hwy. The 407 is empty enough to land a plane on it.” 

(Annette Groves/Facebook)

 

When Groves was sworn in as the town’s eighth mayor on November 15, 2022, she pledged to preserve what was once considered Ontario’s greenest town. Her opposition to Highway 413 was not only a central theme of her mayoral campaign, but also a position she had taken publicly in February 2022 as Ward 5 councillor, when she introduced a motion against the highway’s construction.

More recently, in November 2024, Caledon council voiced its opposition to the PCs’ Highway 413 strategy under Bill 212, after Ward 3 Councillor Doug Maskell tabled a motion rejecting the legislation.

Then in May, Groves quietly introduced another controversial motion to allow the dumping of construction waste into a rehabilitated lake, Swan Lake, a move normally initiated by a developer through a formal application. 

That developer was, again, Nick Cortellucci. 

The motion sparked public backlash, with residents citing concerns over damage to water quality and the habitat of endangered trumpeter swans; many residents have expressed they no longer plan to support Groves in the next election.

Public opposition to Highway 413 remains strong and consistent. 

A February 2024 Pointer poll of 88 Caledon residents found 86 percent opposed Highway 413, with only 14 percent in favour.

 

Residents in Caledon march to protest the construction of the 413 Highway, which organizers pointed out is nothing more than a development play to get residential subdivisions built on land already purchased by developers.

(Alexis Wright/The Pointer)

 

Province-wide, an EKOS poll suggests the opposition is even broader: more than 80 percent of Ontarians support farmers in opposing the proposed highway through the Greenbelt. Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) also agreed that “the Greenbelt is no place for new highways.”

“This is the only poll we know of that probes Ontarians’ views on farmers and Highway 413,” National Farmers Union Ontario president Max Hansgen said. 

“The results are clear. A large majority of residents agree with our farmers: paving the Greenbelt and destroying the land that feeds us makes no sense.”

Law and transportation experts, environmental advocates, and residents alike are tired of seeing provincial progress driven into a cul-de-sac, where symbolic ribbon-cutting ceremonies replace genuine planning, consultation, and accountability.

Martin Collier, founder of Transport Futures, recommends shifting resources toward multimodal, transit-prioritized streets and optimizing existing roads rather than expanding them, arguing that the PCs have “kind of politicized” transportation planning by turning long-term infrastructure decisions into vague election talking points.

“It’s really disappointing to see an approach from government where these kind of ribbon-cutting exercises are put ahead of the public interest in good planning and environmental protection and First Nations consultation,” Bowman added.

“We all want infrastructure to be built efficiently, but this isn't a cost-effective or responsible way to proceed to be building pieces of a major piece of highway infrastructure separately from the rest of the highway. This is just a way to perform action, rather than a way to responsibly move things forward.”

 

 

Email: [email protected]

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