Plans for new Niagara to Toronto highway face opposition

The mayor and council of Burlington in southwestern Ontario went to the provincial legislature on May 8 with a petition protesting against proposals to build a new transportation corridor across the Niagara Escarpment.

The province is studying ways to improve transportation networks between Fort Erie and the Greater Toronto Area. The current proposals include a new highway that would run through the Niagara Escarpment, which is classified by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve.

A full environmental assessment on the transportation plans was begun in June 2006 and is still not complete. However in October 2010 the province already modified a regional official plan to allow for the new road.

The Niagara to GTA (NGTA) Corridor Planning and Environmental Assessment Study Draft for Consultation was published in February 2011. URS, MRC and AECOM helped prepare the study. Click here.

The city of Burlington has banded together with grass roots organizations opposed to the highway under the name of the “Burlington-Halton Corridor Action Group.” They say a new transportation corridor will damage the watershed and ecology of the Niagara Escarpment, and that the new road will also have a negative impact on farming operations in the area.