The records [internal Ministry of Transportation documents obtained by The Trillium through the freedom of information process] show the province knows the 413 won’t end the gridlock, despite government MPPs’ frequent suggestions that it will.

When The Trillium showed the records to experts in transportation modelling and planning, they said the documents show not only will 413 fail to end the gridlock, it will also enable the kind of development that makes it worse.

Highway 413 is the most controversial of the Ford government’s planned highway projects because it is expected to have a high environmental impact and, while the government has not released a cost estimate, the auditor general has pegged it at $4 billion and critics expect it to cost more than double that. The highway would stretch from the western edge of Mississauga, where the 407 ETR meets the 401, curve around Brampton, and then reach the 400 at the northern edge of Vaughan.