This petition is entitled “Stop the Bradford Bypass.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the proposed Bradford Bypass is a $2.2-billion, taxpayer-funded, 16.2-km, four-to-six-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 3,000 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, greenhouse 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 archaeological/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 as follow:

“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.”

I absolutely support this petition. I’ve affixed my signature and will hand it over to page Pania.

First, thank you to the union workers who I hope will be doing that work. But I’d also like to point out that there is nothing in the discussions about the manufacturing of electric vehicles that addresses the undoing of environmental policies that took place during the last government. I think it’s fantastic that we will be building these vehicles, but what are we doing about making sure that our building processes guarantee that future generations will have a livable world to live in? That has to be a part of every project, and so far I have not heard that from this government.

I will certainly be listening and fighting hard for what we need. We have recently gone through an exercise in which ambulances have been cut from the region. This means that people in Beardmore, for example, are at least two hours away from getting any assistance in an emergency.

Now, Beardmore, for people who don’t know, is on Highway 11, mostly a two-lane highway that has thousands of trucks travelling on it every day—many truck drivers, who unfortunately have not been well-trained and who are under a great deal of pressure to get where they’re going fast. More reputable employers actually don’t put the same pressure on their drivers, but what we are seeing is a constant number of trucks going off the road, and some of these accidents can be severe.

When I think of the area near Beardmore and Rocky Bay, which is just down the highway, there is no turning lane, and yet a school bus has to go back and forth from Rocky Bay to Thunder Bay or to Nipigon, which is about an hour, and there’s no safe way for that bus to get in and out of that community. So I will be—

We could also use money to improve snow clearing. I believe it was brought to this House last term that we need to change to an eight-hour snow-clearing cycle, and not the 16-hour one that we currently have.

We certainly want to see money invested in health care, and I would support this bill if I truly believed that that was what was happening, but what I see is that there is punishment taking place of the workers who are there right now, the workers who have been there during the pandemic and are being punished—for what? For being there—while private services continue to be funded excessively out of the public purse. That’s why I don’t support it.