Despite recent assertions from Ontario Premier Doug Ford that construction has begun on Highway 413, one of the province’s most controversial transportation projects, advocacy group Environmental Defence Canada says no such work is under way.

Executive Director Tim Gray told The Energy Mix in an interview that the government’s statements are “yet another round of the Premier bluffing.”

According to Gray, the province has repeatedly claimed progress on the $10- to $20-billion project, even though the procedural and engineering groundwork remains incomplete.

“Repaving intersections and doing routine maintenance doesn’t mean Highway 413 has started,” Gray said. “There’s literally nothing going on.”

Environmental Defence’s monitoring network—made up of residents living along the proposed route and local community advocates—has reported no visible construction activity at sites where clearing or grading would be necessary, Gray said. He added that correspondence with federal agencies confirms many required steps remain unfinished, particularly environmental assessments and permitting.

“They need to finish their engineering,” he explained. “Then they need to complete their environmental studies before they can even apply for federal permits under the Fisheries Act, the Species at Risk Act, and the Migratory Birds Convention Act. None of that has happened.”

While Ontario has weakened or repealed several provincial environmental protections, including portions of the Endangered Species Act, Gray said the province “can’t get by the requirements of federal legislation,” which remain binding. “The federal bureaucracy and scientists don’t work for [the Premier],” he said. “Those timelines are immutable.”

On October 31, the province announced plans to amalgamate Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities into just seven and create a new centralized agency to govern them—moves the government says will not result in job losses or mandate changes while allowing for faster, streamlined permitting.

Environmental Defence argues the highway’s purpose is not to reduce congestion, as the province claims, but to spur sprawling suburban development. “It’s really being built to enable sprawl,” Gray said, calling the 413 “a bad idea turned ecological nightmare” after the route was shifted in 2021 into the Nashville Conservation Reserve, one of the most sensitive areas in the Toronto Region Conservation Authority’s network.

A key piece of the expansion, Gray said, is the associated transmission infrastructure being planned alongside the highway corridor. The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and Mines, launched the Northwest GTA Transmission Corridor Identification Study in 2019 to determine a route for new high-voltage transmission lines. The province has stated that electricity demand in Halton, Peel, and York is rising faster than the provincial average as communities expand beyond existing servicing boundaries.

The proposed transmission corridor is intended to “support housing and economic growth” by bringing additional power into the northwestern GTA and moving bulk electricity through the region, a Ministry of Energy spokesperson told The Mix in an email.

The corridor is not planned to connect directly to new generating stations; instead, it would act as a backbone carrying power into areas expected to urbanize. The Ministry and IESO say their planning is being closely coordinated with the Ministry of Transportation so the transmission route can be aligned with Highway 413 while “minimizing impacts on built-up areas.” Updated routing, they note, reflects revised highway designs, new electricity demand forecasts, and ongoing consultations.

Critics say the co-location of highways and transmission lines is significant because it predetermines land use outcomes. Once these major infrastructure corridors are in place, municipalities face strong pressure to redesignate surrounding farmland for subdivisions, logistics hubs, and industrial uses.

“Transmission corridors don’t get built accidentally,” Gray said. “When you build the power lines and the highway together, you’re not responding to sprawl—you’re creating it.”

Gray also dismissed the government’s estimates that the highway will save commuters up to 30 minutes a day, pointing to a previous expert panel’s finding that the route would shave an average of only 30 seconds off travel times.

Beyond advocacy, Environmental Defence continues to collect scientific data on endangered species in the corridor and share it with federal decision-makers. Gray said his group’s goal is to maintain public awareness and political pressure ahead of Ontario’s next election, noting that all three provincial opposition parties—Liberal, New Democratic Party, and Green—have pledged to cancel the project.

For now, he said, Ontarians should be skeptical of any talk that Highway 413 is already a done deal.

“We just wanted people to know it wasn’t true,” Gray said. “The highway is not starting.”