OPINION: Hwy. 413 plan would threaten Canada’s most endangered wildlife species

Author of the article:

Reid Gomme, Tim Gray

Published Sep 03, 2024  •  2 minute read

The redside dace is pictured in this file photo. Photo by file photo /Postmedia Network

The Ontario government’s proposed Highway 413 is unnecessary, will be shockingly expensive and is wildly unpopular (a recent Toronto Star poll showed 84 per cent opposition from Ontarians). It is also being built to enable sprawl, rather than serve commuters, posing a real and devastating threat to farmland and remaining high quality natural areas in Halton, Peel and York Regions. More alarmingly, many of these areas are home to the best remaining critical habitat for some of Canada’s most endangered wildlife species.

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And that is where the federal government’s role is crucial.

Recent legal efforts by Environmental Defence and Ecojustice have secured the completion and release of the finalized federal Recovery Strategy for Redside Dace after its mandatory publication was delayed. Redside dace are one of the most critically endangered fish species threatened by the proposed highway. Mapping of the highway’s proposed route, and the many rivers and streams it would cross, shows that it would directly destroy, or contaminate with salt, microplastics and excess heat, much of the best remaining habitat for this species. Getting the federal recovery strategy in place is a key step in the process mandated by the federal Species at Risk Act which gives the federal government broad powers, and a legal obligation, to protect this species.

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Similar Recovery Strategy work has been completed for the silver shiner and the western chorus frog, two other endangered species who live directly in the path of the proposed highway and whose chances of survival and recovery in Canada are further reduced if it is built. They are among the over two dozen federally listed species that require evaluation as part of any full review of the highway’s potential impacts.

The federal government’s environmental protection laws are more important than ever as Ontario has gutted its own environmental assessment and species at risk legislation. Changes to the latter have included the creation of a “pay-to-slay” fund which provides permits in exchange for developer fees, reduced protection for species if they exist in other countries and the rollback of protections specific to the redside dace. These legislative attacks on at-risk species accompany well-documented changes to the proposed route of Highway 413 that moved it into more sensitive natural areas, against the advice of the provincial government’s own project consultants.

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These issues, and others related to federal responsibilities for Indigenous cultural sites and traditional use, navigable waters and migratory birds, will be best handled by a thorough review under the recently revised Impact Assessment Act. It is in that context that federal officials and the public can be assured that the full impacts of Highway 413 have been explored and decisions about whether the highway is in the public interest can be made.

More mega-highways in southern Ontario are not the solution to our long-term needs for transportation and pushing them ahead without proper consideration of their massive ecological impacts is clearly unacceptable to most people. Fortunately, the federal government has the tools and the will to help when Ontario has chosen a backwards looking path.

— Tim Gray is executive director of Environmental Defence and Reid Gomme is a staff lawyer at Ecojustice

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