Halton Hills Weighs in on Highway Project Moving Forward
Published August 22, 2019 at 7:44 pm
Back in June of this year, it was announced that the Ontario government would be resuming the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Greater Toronto Area West corridor, which was suspended by the pr
Back in June of this year, it was announced that the Ontario government would be resuming the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Greater Toronto Area West corridor, which was suspended by the province in 2015.
The new highway is expected to improve travel times and reduce traffic build-up across the GTA.
However, the province’s recent announcement about the assessment resuming prompted Halton Hills Mayor Rick Bonnette to issue correspondence to the Minister of Transportation.
Bonnette highlighted the need to prioritize a transit strategy, and commented on the timeline of the project and its impacts on Halton Hills.
“The EA for this project began over 10 years ago with the objective of looking at transportation issues and identifying opportunities to improve linkages between urban growth centres through highway widening and improved connections,” Bonnette said in a statement. “The process included a requirement for the town to protect the study corridor which includes a swath of land in Halton Hills from approximately Highway 407 to 10 Sideroad. This means that we have been unable to offer these lands for development and area residents and farmers have had to deal with this uncertainty.”
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Bonnette noted that the start-stall and reboot of the project has further complicated this issue.
According to a recent press release, Bonnette suggested that a higher priority would be the development of a ministry-led, transit-first strategy that focuses on enhancing inter-regional transit service, as well as providing environmental benefits by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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