FUN Letter of Appreciation
Hon. Kathryn McGarry, MPP Minister of Transportation
Email: kmcgarry.mpp@liberal.ola.org
RE: Cancellation of Greater Toronto Area West Corridor Project
The Federation of Urban Neighborhoods Ontario (FUN) applauds the Ontario government on its February 9, 2018 decision to accept the expert advisory panel’s recommendation that the proposed GTA West corridor is not the best way to address changing transportation needs. And we support the government’s commitment that transportation needs of the corridor will be evaluated from a regional perspective through the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) Transportation Plan, which considers the many ways people and goods move around the region, and will incorporate new and emerging transportation technologies into future projects.
In our letter of March 2, 2016 to your predecessor Minister Steven Del Duca we said the project
“would, if approved, represent the start of what is in essence a whole new 400 series highway system north of Toronto. This highway would encourage and facilitate an unprecedented level of urban sprawl in the GTA, and would be at cross purposes to the government’ s commitment to the Greenbelt and its much needed expansion.”
We are now very pleased to see that the province turn away from this highway 400 expansion while recently enlarging the Greater Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt which we applauded in our letter of March 7, 2018 to Municipal Affairs and Housing.
We are happy to see the Northwest GTA Corridor Identification Study go forward. This will ensure that lands are protected so that new infrastructure, such as transit or utilities, can be developed to support and accommodate future growth and development.
In our letter two years ago we opposed this highway as a waste of taxpayer dollars, so we are happy today that this unnecessary expenditure of public funds has been avoided in light of more pressing infrastructure needs across the province especially in our north.
Yours faithfully,
Archie Campbell President
c.c. Premier Kathleen Wynne, MPP
Hon. Chris Ballard, MPP, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change
Hon. Bill Mauro, MPP, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing
Hon. Jeff Leal, MPP, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
FUN Letter on the Cancellation of the Greater Toronto West Corridor Project (PDF)