“Highway robbery:” Corrupt Conservatives determined to ram through risky Hwy 413 to benefit their insiders

QUEEN’S PARK – Jennifer French, the Official Opposition NDP critic for Infrastructure, released the following statement in response to the Minister of the Attorney General’s announcement regarding the future of Highway 413:

“Ford’s Conservatives have been forced to repeatedly walk back their environmentally risky and corrupt policies – from the Greenbelt Grab, to MZOs, to forced urban boundary expansions.

“They will be leaving taxpayers on the hook for billions, simply to benefit their favoured insiders. They are wasting the court’s time and taxpayer dollars to fight the process instead of following it, and we need to know why.”

QUICK FACTS:

• A 2021 Toronto Star investigation found developers including Fieldgate, the DeGasperis family and the Cortellucci family are set to benefit from the Highway 413 project—some of the same developers involved in Ford’s Greenbelt grab.
• A 2017 expert panel determined that Highway 413 was unnecessary. It recommended the government make better use of the underused Highway 407 instead of building a new highway corridor.