November 20, 2024

Katerina Downard
Environmental Policy Office
438 University Ave 12th Floor
Toronto,
ON M7A 1N3
Canada

RE: Bill 212 - Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024 - Building Highways Faster Act, 2024 (ERO 019-9265)

The Clean Air Council (CAC) is a network of 40 municipalities from across Southern and Eastern Ontario that work collaboratively on the development and implementation of clean air and climate change mitigation and adaptation actions. The CAC network represents over 10 million Ontarians. Clean Air Partnership (CAP) is a charitable environmental organization that supports the ambition and implementation of municipal climate action. CAP serves as the facilitator for the Clean Air Council network.

Below is the consensus-based input from across the CAC municipal network[1] related to ERO posting number 019-9213:

1. Environmental Implications: Highway 413 Act's proposal to exempt Highway 413 from provincial Environmental Assessments (EA), and Bill 212's proposal to accelerate the construction of priority highway projects like Highway 413, could lead to significant and lasting environmental harm. EAs are critical for identifying and understanding environmental risk and pathways for mitigating risk. By exempting Highway 413 from the EA process entirely or creating conditions that restrict timelines for EA completion for certain projects, the Province is overlooking significant environmental implications.
   
   Through Highway 413's exemption from provincial EA's, the Province sets a dangerous precedent and effectively threatens environmentally sensitive area and agricultural lands. The preferred route for Highway 413 cuts through Ontario's Greenbelt, home to 42 key fish habitats, critical habitats of at least 10 federally protected species listed as either Threatened or Endangered, and another 10 species designated as Special Concern. Vital ecosystems, biodiversity, and agricultural land are being placed at risk, and under these circumstances, EAs should be mandatory.
   
   Furthermore, the CAC network supports easing traffic bottlenecks and reducing commute times; however, expanding car-centric road infrastructure only encourages car-dependent sprawl and increased vehicle emissions. Instead, the network recommends the Province make investments in expanding public transit infrastructure, which provides equitable, efficient, and low-emissions transportation options for communities while reducing traffic congestion and supporting sustainable urban growth. Substantial emissions reductions are crucial to avoid the most severe climate change impacts, and the emissions associated with the construction and use of Highway 413 are counterintuitive to advancing emissions reduction; Highway 413 will increase annual vehicle kilometre traffic, leading to increased greenhouse gas emissions and directly contradicting Federal science-based net-zero commitments and undermining municipal greenhouse gas emissions reduction efforts.
   
   
2. Health Risks: The restrictions placed on EAs through Bill 212 and the Highway 413 Act may have serious health implications for local communities. EAs provide a critical opportunity to identify, assess, and minimize environmental risk, including those with public health implications. Circumventing or shortening the EA process may lead to overlooked and unaddressed health risks related to poor water drainage, greenhouse gas emissions, and urban heat island effects.
   
   In particular, the complete removal of provincial EAs through the Highway 413 Act increases the likelihood of inadequate water drainage in a predominantly agricultural area, which could lead to increased flood risk and water contamination from leaching. Moreover, failure to evaluate how the project may contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, air pollutants, and urban heat island effect, and therefore local air quality, is a major oversight. The impacts of the project's emissions and pollutants on air quality could worsen conditions such as asthma, respiratory illness, and cardiovascular disease, particularly in children, the elderly, and those with pre-existing conditions.
   
   Furthermore, by permitting 24-hour construction through Bill 212, the Province is exposing local communities to health impacts associated with increased noise pollution and odour, further increasing risks associated with worsened air quality.
   

The CAC appreciates the expressed commitment to minimizing construction impacts and addressing local concerns on a project-by-project basis; however, exempting Highway 413 from EAs and fast-tracking its construction through Bill 212 poses significant environmental and health risks.

The CAC appreciates the opportunity to provide additional input and is happy to answer any questions and provide more information related to this letter. The CAC can be engaged by reaching out to Gabriella Kalapos at gkalapos@cleanairpartnership.org.

Gabriella Kalapos

Executive Director
Clean Air Partnership

[1] Municipal staff representatives on the Clean Air Council (CAC) were consulted in the preparation of this submission to reflect the feedback of member municipalities, but a direct endorsement of this submission by municipal councils was not sought due to time constraints, and several municipalities are preparing their own independent submissions. CAC representatives are the municipal change agents within leading climate action municipalities and have been working collaboratively across the region for the last 15 years to support and enable progress on clean air and climate change actions. The consultations undertaken were facilitated and endorsed by the Clean Air Partnership, a charitable environmental organization that serves as the secretariat for the Clean Air Council.