Rally in Milton Friday November 22
A great crowd showed up to oppose Highway 413 and ask for a federal Environmental Assessment, which could scuttle this highway. First at the office of federal MP Adam Van Koeverden, then down Main Street to the office of Milton MPP Zee Hamid. Phil Pothen of Environmental Defence urged the crowd to ask MPs for the Environmental Assessment. Folks attended from Georgetown, Mono, Caledon, Erin, Vaughan, Toronto, Oakville and Milton.
Petition presentation
We collected about 1200 signatures this summer on our petition to cancel Highway 413. Mike Shreiner, Guelph MPP presented it to the Ontario Legislature in November. Watch the video.
Highway 413: not a done deal!
Premier Doug Ford's latest antidemocratic attack on the environment, Bill 212 (Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act) will do everything but! We prefer to call it the More Highways, Fewer Bike Lanes Act. Now passed, it will:
Exempt Hwy 413 from a provincial environmental assessment
Allow construction to proceed without reviews of its impacts
Allow “early works” on sections of the highway
Keep information on "sensitive issues" secret from taxpayers.
And, decades of studies have shown, Hwy 413 won't reduce gridlock or save you time.
If you agree that $10 billion of your money could be better invested in public transit, health care and education, visit our Take Action page.
We asked the Minister of the Environment for an environmental assessment
Take a look at this letter composed by our Trillium Team (Ontario focus), signed by nine other climate action groups and copied to several federal ministers and MPs in November.
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It could take years for this highway to go through - if it ever happens. There are many many hurdles before construction can begin. Read Noor Javed’s story in the Toronto Star.
Another story by Noor Javed draws direct links between members of the Doug Ford government and developers who have bought land all along the proposed route of Highway 413. They will benefit; the planet and future generations will not.
413 versus GO train expansion
Which carries more people for roughly the same cost? Our thanks to Transport Action Ontario for this chart, part of an excellent document comparing GO versus 413.