Scientists are calling on the federal government to assess the nature and biodiversity risks posed by Ontario’s Highway 413, a multi-billion-dollar project that would cut through farmland, forests, rivers, and wetlands in a bid to ease traffic congestion around Toronto.
The government’s original commitment to review the project under the federal Impact Assessment Act was thrown into doubt in October, 2023, when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that some aspects of the law overstepped federal authority.
Now, over 120 researchers are citing Ontario’s “poor track record” on endangered species protection in a letter urging [pdf] Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault to undertake a federal impact assessment of the project. The province is barrelling ahead amid these concerns, and recently passed Bill 212 to fast-track the highway, despite internal warnings that it could risk legal challenges and worsen gridlock, reports The Narwhal.
The letter to Guilbeault is the latest in a multi-year effort to prompt federal action despite pushback from Ontario on jurisdictional grounds. In April, when the federal government reached a deal with the province and created a joint working group to minimize the highway’s environmental impact on federal areas, activists characterized it as Ottawa “retreating” from enforcing its laws.
In the recent letter, the scientists urge the feds must step in and assess a highway that threatens at-risk species, fish habitat, and migratory birds—all three “under clear federal jurisdiction.” Ontario will not take “adequate measures” to protect endangered species, they say, adding that the province has watered down its Endangered Species Act (ESA) by removing protection for species that are endangered in Ontario but also live elsewhere.
Environmental Defence Canada, which published the letter and is leading regional opposition to the project, has also criticized other ESA changes, especially to the Species at Risk conservation trust and fund. “A party is essentially allowed to destroy habitat, even with known species-at-risk in the area, as long as they are paying a charge to the fund as a way to ‘replace’ the lost habitat,” the group wrote in January.
“In the absence of federal action, a proper review of the environmental impacts of the proposed highway will not occur and dozens of federally listed species at risk could be harmed, perhaps irrevocably,” the scientists warn in the letter.
Last month, Environmental Defence formally requested that the Highway 413 project be designated for a federal impact assessment, hours after the Ford government introduced Bill 212. The legislation will allow some stretches of highway construction to begin immediately before authorizations under other provincial acts like the ESA have been issued, and before Indigenous consultation has occurred, the authors say.
