Bill aimed at speeding up construction puts species at risk, critics say, calling for Ottawa to intervene
Conservative leader Doug Ford makes a campaign stop in Ottawa on Monday, May 30, 2022. Ontario 's auditor general says the province ignored its own experts when it decided to prioritize building eight highways, including Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass.
Ontario’s new bill, tabled Monday, would exempt the 413 project from the province’s own Environmental Assessment Act, which would have required a lengthy study that considered the highway’s impacts and looked at alternative options. Speaking to reporters, Mr. Sarkaria said the legislation would allow construction on early works to start sooner. He also again declined to provide a cost estimate cost for the 413, citing the need not to tip off bidders for the contract to build it. The province’s Auditor-General pegged the likely bill at $4-billion in 2022, but critics say the final price tag could be double that.
Mr. Gray said the federal government needs to step back in and redesignate the project for more extensive environmental scrutiny under its newly rewritten Impact Assessment Act, an idea supported by Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Green Leader Mike Schreiner. In an e-mail, Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie would not say whether Ottawa should step in but said she would investigate the highway if she became premier.
Ontario’s new legislation also includes changes that would allow the government or its contractors sweeping powers to go onto land on or near the highway’s path to do site inspections, soil sampling or other such work – without any objection from landowners. Anyone who hinders such an activity would face up to a $50,000 fine for a first offence, plus fines of up to $10,000 a day. A second offence could cost up to $100,000.
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