LETTER: Bradford Bypass costly boondoogle, vanity project

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Re: Significant project: Bradford Bypass moving closer to realityMay 9, 2024.

This highway is the poster child for Ontario’s lack of commitment to environmental and climate protection. Ontario has eliminated environmental assessment and species protection laws and exempted this highway from key requirements.

The cumulative effects of this highway on the natural environment and human health due to air and water pollution and habitat loss are potentially irreversible and serious.

Ontario continues to move piecemeal to build portions of this highway at great public expense to be seen as making progress while ignoring the major engineering and environmental challenges it faces on the eastern portion. The result will be a costly red tape that diverts key resources from efficient, fast, green and cost-effective solutions to our transportation problems.

Laura Bowman
Personal attorney, Ecojustice

At a time when people are struggling to put food on the table, pay their rising rents or mortgages, and access healthcare, this government chooses to spend $4 billion on a project that less than 1% of Ontarians will use it regularly.

This project is almost a decade away from use. During this time, traffic congestion will worsen, costs for this project will skyrocket, and money that could have been invested in health, education, social supports will be wasted on a vanity project of mass proportions.

Margaret Prophet
Executive Director, Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition

Studies without strong regulations and actions do not protect the environment. Earlier this year, the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition detailed concerns about the highway’s impact on fish and fish habitats, the effect of salt pollution on Lake Simcoe, the cumulative water impoundment and dewatering issues.

It is clear from the fragmentation evidenced in this project that Ontario has no interest in dealing with any of these issues. Not only have they failed to address these concerns, but they have watered down all the regulations that protect these features. Our environment is simply not being protected by this government.

Claire Malcolmson
Executive Director, Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition