TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO:
WHEREAS the proposed Bradford Bypass is a 2.2 billion dollar, tax-payer funded, 16.2 km, 4 -6 lane highway through the Greenbelt between Highways 400 and the 404;
WHEREAS according to a Toronto Star/ National Observer investigation, the main beneficiaries of this project are land speculators with political and donor ties to the Premier and the PC Party of Ontario, and together own nearly 3000 acres of land along the proposed highway corridor;
WHEREAS the highway would threaten the Holland Marsh and the Lake Simcoe watershed, cutting through 27 waterways, damaging prime farmland, wetlands, woodlands, and significant wildlife habitat; WHEREAS the most recent EA for the project is nearly 25 years old, and this PC Government has exempted it from the Environmental Assessment Act;
WHEREAS, due to this exemption, the government is now free to ignore impacts on agriculture, fish and fish habitat, property, human health, air quality, green
house gas emissions, and other impacts that would have otherwise required an updated assessment under the Act;
WHEREAS the highway will also destroy one of Canada's most significant archeological/historical sites, the Lower Landing;
WHEREAS this highway was conceived in the last century, before the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan, the Greenbelt Plan, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Growth Plan were enacted, and prior to global agreements to fight climate change. WE THE UNDERSIGNED petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to:
- cancel the politically driven, wasteful, and destructive plan for the Bradford Bypass, and redirect all funding for the Bradford Bypass into investments that better serve the regional transportation and mobility needs, including evidence-based plans for transit and regional road improvements, and other investments in the public interest.