Dear Editor:
Well it’s easy, we simply don’t need Highway 413. What all Ontarians need is more upgrades and repairs all over our province. Our weather is changing, all of our existing infrastructure desperately needs upgrading to handle these severe weather conditions.
The 413’s 52km route is estimated to cost $10 billion and will take years to build. This will likely balloon over budget and have delays in construction. Prime farmlands, forests, wetlands and wildlife will forever be destroyed. It will slice right through our Greenbelt lands. Not a good idea when we are in a climate crisis.
Mike Harris, the 22nd premier of Ontario, sold the 407 for $3.1 billion. All to gain support and funding for an upcoming election campaign in 1999. Within 15 years (2014), the tolls had risen 300%. The privately owned 407 made $435.2 million last year (2022). The 407 is underutilized and far too expensive. In fact, the 407 is the most expensive toll road in the world.
Doug Ford’s PC government could refund a reasonable percentage of 407 toll costs for trucking companies and business operator’s with company vehicles. The congestion problems on Highways 401, 403, etc. in the GTHA would ease dramatically. The costs will be billions less in public funds than it would be to build the 413. It can be done now. The 413 will take years to build.
The congestion problems are in the urban areas of the GTHA. There is no congestion in our farm fields, in our forests, wetlands, there is no congestion in our rural areas, why bring it?
All of the major highways in the GTHA need many upgrades to keep traffic flowing and save lives. Here are a few examples that have needed upgrades for decades. The enter and exit ramps at highways 400 and 401 are outdated for the traffic volumes of today. It creates deadly, dangerous, bottlenecks. The enter and exit ramps at highways 409 and 427 are outdated as well.
Highway 410 North and Clark Ave area is a highly dangerous bottleneck. Highway 403 from Winston Churchill Blvd. to the QEW is outdated for traffic volumes witnessed today, this section should have been widened decades ago.
Smart stop lights that integrate with changes in traffic flow volumes, we have that technology. Roundabouts that keep traffic flowing and save lives, we vitally need more roundabouts. Upgrades and repairs to our existing roadways will easily defeat the excuse to build the destructive 413.
I think most of us know that it’s really not about a Highway (413). It’s about the land, it’s about money. That would only benefit a few of us!
Terry Brooker,
Orangeville
*Editor’s note: While the 407 may be one of the more expensive toll roads in the world, the Advertiser was unable to find credible sources that definitively list it as the single most expensive on the planet (most have other roads topping the list).