Ontario’s minister of transportation is set to make an announcement Tuesday in Toronto, just days after suggesting the province would soon introduce legislation to limit where bike lanes can be built.
Prabmeet Sarkaria is scheduled to speak with reporters at 9:30 a.m. in Etobicoke. You can watch the news conference live in the player above.
“Our province is stuck in traffic and bike lanes aren’t helping,” Sarkaria said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday.
“In the coming days our government will unveil our plan to work with our municipal partners to ensure bike lanes are introduced in a way that reflects the needs of the entire community,” the post continued.
Last month, CBC News obtained internal government draft documents that included the case for a legislative measure to prohibit bike lanes when lanes for motor vehicles are removed as a result.
At the time, Sarkaria declined to confirm whether such a measure would be forthcoming.
But in public appearances since, both Sarkaria and Ford have repeatedly said that bike lanes are adding to gridlock, hurting local businesses and making it harder for emergency services to get around. Neither have provided any direct evidence for those claims.
The pair have also said bike lanes should be limited to side streets.
Sarkaria’s news conference on Tuesday will be held at a restaurant on Bloor Street West. The busy thoroughfare has become a flash point for the debate about bike lanes in the city, with residents and business owners split over protected lanes that were recently installed.
Last week, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow publicly asked Ford to consider delaying legislation targeted at bike lanes as the city works to address the “irritants” some in the area have flagged with the new Etobicoke lanes.
The looming legislation is part of a larger push by the Ford government to tackle traffic congestion in the province, particularly in the Greater Toronto Area.
Another possibility includes digging the world’s longest road tunnel beneath Highway 401 in the region for both vehicles and public transit.