So, if more lanes and bigger roads don’t alleviate traffic, why doesn’t the province invest in more robust public transit? The government has already expanded GO train services by 15% on existing lines in the greater Golden Horseshoe. If the goal was to alleviate traffic in this region, would it not make more sense to create more GO Transit lines and provide alternatives to being stuck in traffic?
As is the trend in Canadian politics, the goal is not to solve public issues, but rather to enrich private coffers. A 2021 National Observer investigation highlighted that eight of Ontario’s biggest real estate developers own land near the proposed route of Highway 413.
The developers listed in the report are: Cortellucci, De Gasperis, Guglietti and De Meneghi families, John Di Poce, Benny Marotta, Argo Development and Fieldgate Homes. The De Gasperis family was implicated in the Greenbelt Scandal, having used seven of their companies to buy protected land that Doug Ford would have opened for development.
All the developers listed above have been prolific donators to the Ontario PCs, having donated money in the tens of thousands either to the party directly or to the Conservative third-party foundation Ontario Proud.
… this means cutting corners on environmental assessments for the last vestiges of rural land in the GTA. The proposed route is set to raze 2,000 acres of farmland, pave 400 acres of Greenbelt land in Northern Vaughan, and disrupt 220 wetlands.
Wanting to make his buddies rich aside, the destruction of this land is by far the most insidious part of his plan. This is land we will never get back if it’s turned into another highway.
I wish the “Con” in Conservative meant “Conservation” rather than “con job”!
