SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
March 6, 2024 09:00AM
  • Mar/6/24 11:10:00 a.m.

Mr. Speaker, once again, we know what this is all about: It’s about their campaign to stop Highway 413, and we will not listen to them. The people of this province elected us to build Highway 413. In fact, they lost three members for being on the wrong side of that.

Everything that this government has done under the leadership of Premier Ford has put more money back into hard-working families of this province, whether it’s 10 cents a litre on the gas tax; whether it’s removing tolls on the 412 or 418, which that member voted against when this Premier put that forward; or whether it’s removing $125 val-tag fees from each car or truck that an individual owns in this province.

And on top of that, we are fighting against the 23% increase of the carbon tax that’s coming on April 1. I hope that member also raises her voice to the federal members that she knows and her counterparts to make sure that we keep more money in the pockets of hard-working families in Ontario.

My message to both the Liberals and the NDP is: Get out of the bubble. Come to cities like Brampton. Come to cities like Mississauga. Travel the streets and roads all across this province, whether they’re in northern Ontario, southern Ontario, and listen to the drivers. We need to build more infrastructure. We need to build the Bradford Bypass. We need to build Highway 413, and as we do that, we’re going to continue to fight against punishing policies like the carbon tax, which is about to go up by 23% on April 1.

We will continue to fight for hard-working families in this province and put more money back into their pockets.

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  • Mar/6/24 11:10:00 a.m.

My question is to the Minister of Transportation. When the 407 was built, there was a plan for it to be paid by 2027 and then we would own it. Instead, the Conservatives sold it for a song, the tolls have gone up about 300%, and the 407 ETR owns us. The 99-year lease was highway robbery, actually.

People resent that the 407 tolls are out of control. People want to get where they want to go, and this government could save people time, make the 401 safer and improve the flow of goods. We proposed a solution to help, and this government voted against it.

So my question is, why isn’t the government willing to talk about the 407 and toll relief?

So let’s take the tolls off the trucks, get the trucks off the 401 and make traffic better for everyone. Let’s renegotiate the 407 ETR contract. Everyone knows traffic congestion is already brutal, but we could do this now.

So my question is, when will this Conservative government be willing to do something about the 407?

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