When it comes to Highway 413 environmental impacts, Ford just doesn’t want to know

February 27, 2023

QUEEN'S PARK — Ontario Greens leader and MPP for Guelph, Mike Schreiner, released the following statement in response to the revelation of major gaps in the Ford government’s environmental impact studies of the Highway 413 project.

“Doug Ford clearly doesn’t want the people of Ontario to know the real environmental costs of his reckless Highway 413 project.

How else can you explain how Ontario spends more than $35 million on environmental impact assessments and still does not know how much the project will contribute to greenhouse gas emissions?

How do you spend all those millions on an environmental impact study that doesn’t determine the impact on local endangered species?

Yet as Doug Ford bulldozes ahead with plans for his expensive, destructive Greenbelt highway, both of these impacts remain unknown.

The obvious conclusion is that none of this really matters to Doug Ford as he pursues his sprawl-at-any-cost agenda – carving up the Greenbelt and paving over farmland and wetlands with the super-sprawl highways 413 and Bradford Bypass.

I repeat my call on the government to scrap these costly, ill-conceived and destructive highway projects.

The Ford government’s reckless disregard for environmental protections is bad for our climate, economy, communities and quality of life.”

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