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Green Party voices opposition to new highway

March 3, 2022   ·   0 Comments

The Green Party of Ontario, along with the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition, expressed concerns over the construction of the Holland March Highway, also known as the Bradford Bypass, saying it will have a huge environmental impact on the region, specifically Lake Simcoe. 

Ontario Green Party leader Mike Schreiner hosted an on-line meeting along with Margaret Prophet, Executive Director of the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition, on Friday, February 25, to voice opposition to the highway, which has an anticipated completion date of early 2023.

The Bypass, Mr. Schreiner said, “is a climate and economic disaster.”

The proposed new highway is a 16.2 kilometre controlled access highway connecting Highway 400 and Highway 404, across the County of Simcoe and Regional Municipality of York.

The Provincial government says the highway is needed to fight congestion and prepare for a massive population growth over the next 30 years.

The Bradford Bypass website claims the highway “would create jobs during construction and once completed would help connect people to major employment centres and attract more businesses to the area.”

The Green Party and Greenbelt Coalition say the highway will pave over 42 acres of the Holland Marsh, destroy 96 acres of wildlife habitat, and 25 acres of provincially significant wetlands.

“We’ve already paved over 75 per cent of the wetlands in Southern Ontario,” Mr. Schreiner said. “It would contaminate ground water and would further pollute Lake Simcoe which is already extremely fragile and at severe risk. It would increase flood risk and would pump 87 million kilograms of climate pollution into the air each and every year at a time when we’re facing a climate emergency.”

Mr. Schreiner said that according to a poll by Lake Simcoe Watch, only 29 per cent of local voters support the project.

“Concerns about this greenbelt highway are driven by local people who live in the regions directly affected,” Ms. Prophet said. “The opposition to this highway has grown increasingly as more is known. This opposition is evidenced by over 20,000 residents of Ontario who have signed petitions, 63 NGOs from across Ontario, and seven local municipalities who all agreed that this highway needs better study before it’s too late.”

Opponents to the highway say Lake Simcoe will have toxic salt levels in about 37 years with the main source being urbanization and roads.

“Traffic engineers will tell you straight, that congestion won’t be fixed by this highway or any highway for that matter,” Ms. Prophet said.

The cost of the new highway has been pegged at around $1.5 billion, but some experts estimate the final cost could be much higher.

By Brian Lockhart
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

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