High-profile Ontarians demand halt to Highway 413, as election nears

A group that includes business leaders, doctors and Canada's most famous living novelist is calling on Premier Doug Ford's government to stop its plans for building Highway 413.

The call comes in a new open letter organized by the David Suzuki Foundation, provided to CBC News. The signatories say they're concerned about the future of the Greenbelt that surrounds the Greater Toronto Area. 

"We are concerned, in particular, about the threat posed by Highway 413," says the letter. "This highway would slice through the Greenbelt, destroying nearly six kilometres of forest and 75 wetlands. It would pave 2,000 acres of farmland."

The letter is signed by more than 30 people including author Margaret Atwood, singer Chantal Kreviazuk as well as actor and comedian Ron James. Six physicians have put their names to it, along with the presidents and CEOs of a freight and logistics company, a corporate search firm and a private equity firm.

Highway 413 would run for some 60 kilometres across the northwestern part of the GTA, from Highway 400 at the northern edge of Vaughan to the interchange of highways 401 and 407 at the western limits of Brampton and Mississauga. 

NDP, Liberals and Greens all oppose plan

Ford and his Progressive Conservative Party are making the promise to build the new highway a key plank in their re-election bid, especially in the fiercely contested ridings of Peel and York regions. The Ontario NDP, Liberals and Greens all oppose the plan. 

The open letter, to be published Saturday, is the latest salvo from opponents of Highway 413. It says traffic congestion will not be solved by new highways that give an incentive to put more cars on the road. Instead, it calls for expanded GO train service, light rail and other forms of public transit, along with "better use" of the privately owned 407 toll highway.

"The $6 to $10 billion required to build (Highway) 413 should be spent on pressing community needs, not an expressway that deepens the climate crisis and paves our Greenbelt," concludes the letter.

The government has yet to put an official price tag on the highway despite putting a commitment to build it in the most recent mini-budget.  

A spokesperson for Ford is defending the Highway 413 plan, saying the previous Liberal government failed to build the infrastructure needed to keep up with the province's growing population, leaving drivers idling in bumper-to-bumper traffic .

"For every one dollar our government is spending on building highways, we are spending three on building transit," Ford's director of media relations Ivana Yelich said in an email to CBC News.

"We are saying yes to building the roads, highways and public transit needed to get people moving, including the largest subway expansion program this province has ever seen," Yelich said.

Highway would be a 'boneheaded' move, says opponent

In interviews, some of the signatories to the open letter said that the government's plans for building new transit don't provide justification for building Highway 413.   

One of the letter's signatories, Toronto-based urban designer Ken Greenberg, calls the proposal to build the highway a "terrible mistake" for the people of the GTA and the province as a whole. 

"This is just such an astonishing thing to be doing," said Greenberg in an interview Friday. "In our province, we've been trying to make efforts to get away from all the automobile dependence, the terrible impacts it has in terms of climate change. It just doesn't make sense."

Building the highway would be "an example of boneheaded economic development" that won't improve traffic congestion, said Toby Heaps, the CEO of business research and media firm Corporate Knights. 

"Everybody acknowledges that we have a big congestion problem," said Heaps in an interview. "Building a brand new highway through the Greenbelt, setting aside the conservation issues and concerns there, it's a lot of money and doesn't solve the problem now." 

An official with the David Suzuki Foundation said the group is excited about the wide range of people who signed the letter, in particular from the business world.  

"It's not the usual suspects, if you will," said Gideon Forman, a climate change and transportation policy analyst. 

"It's not just local folks who live near the Greenbelt, it's not just as environmentalists, as important as those voices are. But for the first time, you've got major business leaders stepping up," said Forman.