GTA West highway in limbo and so are farmers

Monday, March 7, 2016

In mid-December, the province was scheduled to announce its final option (at one point there were seven) for a four-to-six lane highway from Highway 400 in Vaughan to the junction of 401 and 407 in Milton. Instead, the province announced it was suspending an environmental assessment.

"The project will be reviewed and an update will be provided in spring 2016," says the announcement.  The 401 parallel, to be built by 2031, was projected to carry 300,000 cars and trucks per day. Different proposals have been in the works for a long time. Farmers in its path are left hanging.  One proposed route would have gone through soybean and corn fields farmed by Peel Federation president Keith Garbutt in south Caledon. "We don't know if (the suspension) is temporary until spring or indefinite," Garbutt says. Meanwhile, a freeze remains on new building on the last three proposed routes.

According to a statement attributed to transport minister Steven Del Duca, "having the right transportation network in place that builds on our climate change commitments, our ability to embrace new and emerging technologies and the sharing economy, will help us plan for a flexible transportation system that adapts to our quickly changing landscape and positions our province for success for generations to come."

But, says Garbutt, "my personal hunch is that they are going to spend that money on subways in Toronto and not out here, but that's just a hunch." BF