The 413 would run 60 miles[60 km]northwest of Toronto and through Greenbelt. The proposal has become a lightning rod for environmental groups who say the highway will contribute to the spread, and all three opposition parties say they will cancel the plan if Ford computers are defeated in the June election. Opponents of the Highway 413 see the 407 as a low-cost alternative, with great potential to attract traffic from Canada’s busiest highway, the 401.
The Transport Action Ontario advocacy group supports the idea that the provincial government should actually make freight trucks use the 407 free of charge by paying their tolls. The team argues that this would be a cheaper solution for the government than the construction and operation of Highway 413 and would do more to solve GTA congestion problems right now.
“Right now, most truckers use the 401 because they find tolls [on the 407] prohibitive, “said Peter Miasek, president of Transport Action Ontario. “It simply came to our notice then [that] 407 is the perfect alternative because it has no congestion at the moment “. Using data from provincial traffic studies and the company that owns the 407 ETR, the group estimates that such a move would have between 12,000 and 21,000 trucks using the toll highway each day. This is what the Ontario government describes as its preferred route for Highway 413, which connects the northern and western parts of the greater Toronto area, between the existing 400 and 401 freeways. (Hailley Furkalo / CBC)
He estimates that a full toll subsidy for so many trucks over a 30-year period would be the equivalent of $ 4 billion today. The Ford government does not say how much the 413 motorway will cost, but an estimate from the previous government several years ago put it at $ 6 billion. Independent analysts have pledged $ 8 billion to $ 10 billion in current costs in the region. Negotiating such an agreement with the company that owns the 407 ER “would require a little creativity and a little pressure” from the provincial government, says Toby Heaps, chief executive of Corporate Knights, a Toronto-based business research and media company. “There is definitely room for a deal, as the 407 is relatively empty and there are a lot of big trucks that would like to get there,” said Heaps, one of the businessmen who signed a new open letter to Ford. the government demands that the 413 freeway be stopped. Others in the business world insist that the 413 freeway is necessary to cope with the increase in traffic in the GTA and see a toll subsidy on the 407 as an inadequate solution. “It’s not a realistic choice,” said Nadia Todorova, executive director of the Ontario Housing and Policy Alliance. With the expected significant population increases around the GTA, Todorova said capacity needs to be added to the existing motorway network. The proposal to divert truck traffic off Highway 401 and Highway 407 would involve a $ 260 million-a-year subsidy from the provincial government. (Paul Smith / CBC)
“The 407 alone is not enough to meet this projected increase in demand,” Todorova said in an interview. “Even if we were to focus on the 407 in the near future, by 2031 we would be back where we started and suffer from the same congestion problems we have at the moment.” While the Ford government is not ruling out measures to increase traffic to the 407, it is not considering scrapping plans to build the Highway 413. “We can consider temporary measures to alleviate the tragic congestion, but we also need to think long-term,” said Stan Cho, Deputy Transport Minister. “413 has to be built because of the growing population,” Cho told Queen’s Park. Liberal leader Steven Del Duca, who was transport minister when the previous government pushed the 413 stop button, believes the government should explore a toll subsidy as an alternative to building the new highway. “I think every option should be on the table,” said Del Duca.
Tolls on the privately owned 407 ETR vary depending on the time of day and the specific section of the motorway. Between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. The price per kilometer for a typical transport truck ranges from 77 cents to $ 1.24. In 2019, before the pandemic significantly affected its traffic, the 407 ETR generated $ 1.4 billion in toll revenue, according to its financial statements.