Highways are the gateway drug for sprawl and the Bypass is a perfect example. 

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Province rushing Bradford Bypass shows more concern for politics than Lake Simcoe, climate or affordable housing

Bradford – This morning the province announced that it is awarding a contractor for the early works construction for the Bradford Bypass.  These early works are allowed to begin before studies are completed, thanks to an exemption the province gave itself last October. Mulroney announced that construction of the bridge over Yonge Street could begin later this year.

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Rendering of what a four-lane highway bridge could look like crossing the East Holland River. Credit Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition.

Gord Miller, the former Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, characterized this provincial exemption in a recent webinar, saying:

“This is a violation of international standards. It’s widely recognized that when you’re doing an assessment of an initiative you don’t start until you’ve at least measured all of the impacts to the best of your ability so you can make a rational decision. They are clearly violating that.”

“Highways are the gateway drug for sprawl and the Bypass is a perfect example. Developers own over 3000 acres of land around this highway waiting for the greenlight to destroy more farmland and wetlands.

York Region is planning on destroying 24,589 acres of farmland for new development by 2051, and the Bypass would facilitate the worst of this sprawl in East Gwillimbury.

Supporting the Bypass is contrary to building compact and affordable housing, a healthy Lake Simcoe, a productive agriculture sector and climate action,” says Claire Malcolmson, Executive Director of the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition. 

Although no one in the government has confirmed the price of the highway, estimates show that Ontarians will be paying anywhere from $800 million to $2.2 billion for this 16 km, 400 series highway. 

This leads opponents to declare that this is a waste of funds that could be better spent elsewhere.

Bill Foster, founder of Forbid Roads Over Green Spaces says, “We are in the sixth wave of the pandemic and our healthcare and education systems are in dire need of investment. 

A destructive highway through the Greenbelt that will pollute Lake Simcoe, a regional economic driver,  is a wasteful and dangerous way to spend limited tax dollars. 

We could save a very small portion of the province a few minutes in driving time or we could provide better healthcare, more nurses, better senior care and more childcare spaces. 

The fact that two Greenbelt highways – the Holland Marsh Highway and Highway 413 – are Premier Ford’s major election planks,  speaks volumes about his priorities to me.” 

Opponents are gravely concerned about how adding more fossil fuel infrastructure will exacerbate the climate crisis.

Margaret Prophet, Executive Director of the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition, “Yesterday, the International Panel on Climate Change outlined how important it is to reduce transportation emissions and how urban areas need to lessen their investment in car dependent infrastructure.  Yet, today, we get a doubling down on a Greenbelt destroying highway that clearly contradicts the spirit of what climate scientists are telling us we need to do. 

It’s clear there’s no intention here to tackle climate change seriously.  We’re still pulling from a 1950s playbook of economic development that created all of this mess to begin with. 

This highway is destructive and costly and it will lock in a style of development that will negatively impact our collective health forever and decision makers don’t seem to care.”

Background

IPCC Report about Transportation (See 10.3)

How Could We Invest This Money Differently?

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Arial photo of the Holland Marsh, with Lake Simcoe in the distance. Credit Jeff Laidlaw.

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The provincial government is proposing a highway that would connect the 404 with the 400. The proposed route passes along the northern edge of Bradford, and through portions of the Holland Marsh.

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Community supported, advocacy for a safe and secure future.

Governments have failed to act to protect our communities and the futures of our children and grandchildren, and they continue to treat our environment as if it’s incidental to life, rather than a foundation for it.

We need strong community organizations to fight for our future, now more than ever.

Please consider donating to support our work. It’s people like you who make us possible.

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We send out a once-monthly newsletter full of information on what’s happening in Simcoe County and beyond, including information on how you can take action to protect the health of your community.

Upper York Sewage Solution

York Region is pushing for a massive wastewater treatment facility. This facility will serve a massive increase in sprawl in the area, and will dump effluent into important water bodies.

2009 – York Region begins work on UPSS; Environmental Assessment (EA) process is started.

2010 – Terms of Reference approved. 

2014 – EA completed.

2016 – Ministry review completed.

Proponents submit Stakeholder and First Nations review.

Provincial Duty to Consult determined to have not been met.

2010 – Part of the UPSS project – the York Durham Sewage System forcemain twinning and pumping station modification work – is separated out and exempted from the EA process. Construction on this part proceeds.

Present – Waiting for a decision by the Province.

What's happening?

York Region is planning to increase its capacity for wastewater treatment. The rationale is that this is required to meeting a projected increase of roughly 150,000 in population by 2031.

A key aspect of this project that is important to recognize that it is more than the sum of its parts. The EA for the project, on its own, does not capture the impacts the wastewater treatment facility will have on the region.

While the impacts of the wastewater treatment facility on its own are of concern, the knock-on impacts of increasing capacity for development in the area, which is what this project accomplishes, cannot be separated out from the wastewater treatment facility itself. One leads to the other.

Quick Facts

Inadequate First Nations Consultation

Effluent Contains Pharmaceuticals

Impacts to Aquatic Ecosystem

Why is it a concern?

Lack of Consultation with Georgina Island First Nation

The duty to consult with First Nations that has not been fulfilled.

Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation Chief, Donna Big Canoe, has outlined concerns that the project would infringe on hunting and fishing rights, and stated that the province and region have not done enough to explore alternative solutions.

Sprawl

One of the biggest problems with this project is the financial justification is not on solid ground. This is a major reason why, as the thread embedded below outlines, the Region has had a on and off approach to implementing it.

As the thread notes, York has put a lot of money into servicing areas closer to the GTA, but the development in the area didn’t materialize to the extent that justified this cost, putting York deep in the red financially.

The UYSS, however, is intended to service an area to the north, bordering on the southern shores of Lake Simcoe.

There is the potential for increased development that this project opens up, as mentioned above. Without a strong commitment to build complete communities, and to focus on the sustainability of the region those communities are situated within, this project simply doubles down on business as usual for developers in the GTA, which is to build cheap sprawl on farmland.

Protect Lake Simcoe

Learn more about the threats facing Lake Simcoe and take action to protect it.

Currently, approximately 3 out of 5 residents in York Region commute more than 30 minutes each way to work every day, and just under 1 out of 5 drive more than an hour.

While York is starting to work towards increased intensification, it is important that its ability to direct growth beyond these areas remains constrained. The Region, for example, states that towards the end of the anticipated planning period to 2041 employment growth will shift towards what are currently less populated, and less integrated in the regional urban fabric, ares of Georgina and East Gwillimbury. It also states that additional urban lands will be required to accommodate forecasted growth.1York Region: Preferred Growth Scenarios – 2041

The capacity of the UYSS is 1/3 unfilled through 2031, allowing for continued growth through the projected lifespan of the facility.

How Can You Get Involved?

  1. Learn more about the threats facing Lake Simcoe and take action.
  2. Share your concerns on social media.
  3. Sign up to our newsletter to stay informed on developments with growing the Greenbelt and limiting sprawl.

Links to Further Reading

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Photo of a highway bridge. Credit Ajai Arif.
Planning

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There are a lot of misconceptions, myths, and misunderstandings regarding the role that highways and cars play in our economy, and the impact they have on our environment and communities. Many of these are coming to the fore with the Bradford Bypass. Here we address some of them.

Read More »
Bird's eye view of a wastewater treatment facility. Credit Van Bandura.
Featured

Upper York Sewage Solution

York Region is planning to increase its capacity for wastewater treatment. The rationale is that this is required to meeting a projected increase of roughly 150,000 in population by 2031.

A key aspect of this project that is important to recognize that it is more than the sum of its parts. The EA for the project, on its own, does not capture the impacts the wastewater treatment facility will have on the region.

Read More »

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

We send out a once-monthly newsletter full of information on what’s happening in Simcoe County and beyond, including information on how you can take action to protect the health of your community.

Report: How well protected are Greenlands in Simcoe County?

This report, led by the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition, looks at the levels of protection provided to lands in Simcoe County.

It concludes that more needs to be done to ensure high quality water, wildlife habitat, and food production.

Overview

In 2019 the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition undertook a study to determine how much land in Simcoe County had some level of protection.

Land-use policies, or regulations made by provincial and local governments that determine where cities and towns are built and how natural resources are used, have struggled to keep up with the demands of a changing climate.

Pressure on water, farmland, and natural areas for habitat and carbon sequestration are increasing, yet we see only incremental change in policies governing them.

This report set out to look at the state of lands protected in Simcoe County, and to determine whether more needs to be done.

Categories of Protection

The report identifies three levels of protection based on different polices they are covered by, and notes current and likely vulnerabilities or threats to natural areas, water, and farmland under existing policies.

Protected Lands Map

A map was produced that shows where the different levels of protected lands, as well as the proportion of lands under the different categories of protection.

As you can see a good portion of Best Protected greenland is covered by the Minesing Wetlands, located in the centre of the County just to the west of Kempenfelt Bay in Lake Simcoe.

The Minesing Wetlands are a designated under the Ramsar Convention as a wetland of international importance.

Click the image for a high resolution version.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Wetland Cover

Environment Canada recommends a minimum of 10% wetland cover in Southern Ontario.

Simcoe County has 14% wetland cover based on this analysis, approximately half of which is historic or pre-settlement cover.

Despite the relatively good looking numbers, Simcoe County is losing wetlands.

Many subwatersheds are below the LSRCA’s watershed-wide targets. (Subwatersheds are areas that drain into a river that itself drains into the main receiving body of water, such as Lake Simcoe and Lake Huron.)

To achieve “no net loss”, all wetlands should be formally evaluated, identified and protected in the County’s Natural Heritage System.

Forest Cover

Having at least 50% forest cover equates to a “low-risk” approach, meaning that wildlife and ecosystems are highly likely to remain healthy and viable.

Simcoe County has only 22% forest cover based on this analysis.

Simcoe County is nowhere near the 50% forest cover target, and forest coverage continues to decline.

Forest cover is not evenly distributed across Simcoe County, with most cover in the north.

Ecologically based forest cover targets should be set for the subwatersheds

Impervious Land Cover

Impervious land, or land that does not allow for rainwater or other water to be easily absorbed, should be less than 10% of an urbanizing watershed. Impervious land cover increases costs of water management and risks of flooding.

Simcoe County is 8% urbanized. (Note that while not all land within an urban envelope is impervious, it is used as a rough proxy here in the absence of more detailed accounting.)

As new lands are zoned residential and developed the urbanized and impervious portion of the County will increase.

Efforts should be made to increase residential density within existing settlement boundaries to limit the need to convert more agricultural and natural lands to residential.

Initiatives like Barrie’s new Stormwater Climate Action Fund can be helpful in more accurately capturing the extra costs associated with impervious land cover.

Recommendations

We can achieve these ecological targets in Simcoe County, since we currently have 14% of the County in the Best Protected, and 58% in the Somewhat Protected categories.

But both of these categories allow for a death by a thousand cuts; many changes to land use are permitted even in the Best Protected category.

Provincial Actions

  • Maintain or strengthen the provincial policies that protect wetlands, forests and shorelines in provincial planning documents;
  • Make efforts to engage Indigenous people and ensure their perspectives and Traditional Ecological Knowledge are incorporated into provincial policies that protect wetlands, forests, shorelines and other significant natural features they may identify;
  • Work with municipalities and the County to implement the Growth Plan’s Natural Heritage System for the Greater Golden Horseshoe and related policies as soon as possible to protect linkages in particular;
  • Prohibit the removal of greenlands and linkages from the Growth Plan’s Provincial Natural Heritage System;
  • Preliminary maps of “high quality natural cover” have been developed by the province in the Lake Simcoe watershed. Take the next steps and ensure the mapping is completed, and that these features are protected in the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan;
  • Expand the Greenbelt into Simcoe County.

Municipal Actions

  • Municipalities in the Lake Simcoe watershed that have not already done so, should adopt the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority’s Natural Heritage Strategy in their municipal Official Plans;
  • Municipalities in the Nottawasaga Valley watershed should implement the Natural Heritage recommendations in the NVCA’s Integrated Watershed Management Plan;
  • Set targets, implementation mechanisms, and timelines to meet or exceed the federal habitat protection guidelines above, on a subwatershed basis, and put biodiversity objectives in municipal planning documents;
  • Ensure that the “high quality natural cover” features in the Lake Simcoe watershed are protected in Simcoe County’s Official Plan;
  • Refuse requests to expand settlement boundaries, and instead develop “complete communities”;
  • Increase environmental restoration activity, focusing on linkages, shorelines and riverbanks;
  • Develop strong regional and municipal tree cutting bylaws and enforcement regimes using the Ontario Woodlot Tree Conservation By-law Template;
  • Explore and invest in green infrastructure.

Landowners

Landowners wanting to protect environmental or farm features on their lands forever can do so in a number of ways through a Land Trust.

Land Trusts are charitable organizations committed to permanent protection of lands with ecological, scenic, historical, agricultural and recreational values.

These Land Trusts operate in Simcoe County: Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust, Couchiching Conservancy, Nature Conservancy of Canada, and Huronia Land Conservancy. See the Ontario Land Trust Alliance website for information about local land trusts.

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Friends. Online censorship by unaccountable tech companies, combined with an all-out assault on the Greenbelt by Ontario’s developers/government, make this a perilous time for the future of democracy and the power of the people in Ontario.

We need to build new ways of empowering those who believe in accountability, in a healthy environment, and in communities ready to thrive in the economy of tomorrow.

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