An agreement between the provincial and federal governments will see Premier Doug Ford’s flagship Highway 413 move forward with a joint working group dedicated to minimizing environmental impacts.
In a statement released Monday, officials said that both governments have agreed to a “collaborative process to assess and manage the issues around federal species at risk throughout Ontario’s planning of the project.”
“This agreement shows Canada and Ontario’s ability to work together while recognizing their shared jurisdiction on matters to do with the environment,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said in a statement.
“It also ensures federal interests will be maintained on the protection of species while offering Ontario, in light of the recent Supreme Court’s decision, a greater level of clarity around the review process for the Highway 413 Project.”
This “memorandum of understanding” comes after years of back-and-forth between the two levels of government on the Highway 413 project—a major campaign promise of Ford’s that would see a six-lane, 52-kilometre throughway connect Halton and York regions.
Environmental advocates and local farmers have criticized the plan, noting it will compromise crucial land and impact business. A 2022 report by Environment Defence identified at least 29 “federally identified species at risk” that will be impacted by the highway and said it would cross more than 100 streams and rivers and result in the loss of about 400 acres of Greenbelt land.
In May 2021, the federal government determined the highway warranted designation under the Impact Assessment Act, a piece of legislation that gives them the authority to evaluate how climate change may be impacted by the project.
After a Supreme Court opinion found the Impact Assessment Act was unconstitutional, the government has been actively fighting the process for both Highway 413 and Ontario Place.
In March 2024, both governments said they agreed to resolve the court battle through a joint consent order. The designation has now been set aside.
In the coming months, we will move ahead with procurement to get shovels in the ground on key interchanges of the project, bringing us one step closer to getting it done,” Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said in a statement.
“I want to thank the federal government for meeting us at the table and collaborating on the environmental protections needed to get the project started.”
In Monday’s joint statement, government officials released a few more details about this agreement, saying that a joint working group will be created to “recommend appropriate measures to minimize environmental impacts in areas of federal environmental jurisdiction.”
“The joint working group will leverage collective expertise to protect the environment and ensure impacts to species at risk, like the Western chorus frog and the red-headed woodpecker, and their critical habitats are considered before the project moves into the detailed design stage,” officials said in the joint release.
Officials noted the project is still subject to Ontario’s Environmental Assessment Act and other provincial and federal protections, including the Fisheries Act, the Migratory Birds Convention Act and the Species at Risk Act.