WHY HIGHWAY 413 IS A BAD IDEA BY DEBBE CRANDALL
The spectre of a 400-series highway slicing through the south Caledon
In November 2021 Caledon residents participated in a protest in Bolton calling on the Ford government to cancel Highway 413. Organized by Environmental Defence, protests against 413 and the Bradford Bypass were held the same day in Holland Landing, King City and Mississauga.
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First proposed in 2007, the 413 has been dubbed the “zombie highway” for good reason. In 2016 the then Liberal government of premier Kathleen Wynne suspended the environmental assessment of the highway and appointed an expert panel to consider its future. The panel found that the environmental assessment had fatal flaws in how it determined the need for the highway and that it gave short shrift to a suite of alternatives. The highway seemed as good as dead. But three years later, premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government not only revived the environmental assessment, it passed legislation to fast-track it. This would allow early works such as bridge building over watercourses to proceed prior to the completion of the assessment. The government’s rationale for resurrecting the highway was twofold. The highway would reduce the acute congestion on Highway 401 that hampers the movement of goods and people, and this massive infrastructure project would inject an estimated $350 million in real GDP for every year of construction over five years. Who could argue with that? Well, a lot of people, it seems. Here’s a summary of the case against the 413.
COURTESY JENNI LE FORESTIER
countryside has been hanging over our heads since it was brought back to life in 2019. The proposed GTA West Transportation Corridor, aka Highway 413, would span 59 kilometres from Highway 401 in Halton to Highway 400 in Vaughan. Caledon will host the longest section of the highway which also crosses the northwest corner of Brampton and a swath of the Greenbelt in Vaughan.
