Stop the Bradford Bypass

Background

The province of Ontario is recklessly putting the cart before the horse by starting to build the Bradford Bypass before necessary research and planning have been completed.

They have completed an underpass at Yonge St., north of Bradford and awarded a contract to build the western portion of the highway without committing to manage:

Impacts on human health, climate change, or Lake Simcoe;
The cumulative effects of the loss of fish habitat over the entire project;
Salt pollution in Lake Simcoe: In 37 years, Lake Simcoe could reach the chronic guideline level of salinity. A salt-spewing highway will hasten this change;
Current and future local traffic congestion;
There is also no budget and no complete engineered drawings of the highway.

10,000 people, seven municipalities, and 63 organizations have asked for additional provincial or federal impact assessment for this highway.

Neither level of government has agreed, and we are not satisfied with their reasons.

This is no way to protect Lake Simcoe and its fish!

Fact Sheet Bradford Bypass Fact Sheet Published: November 7, 2023

The Bradford Bypass is a proposed 16.2 km, rural 4-lane controlled access 400-series highway that would connect Highway 400 (Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury) and Highway 404 (Town of East Gwillimbury).

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Accomplishments

We educated Councils about the Bradford Bypass, highlighting the misinformation stemming from the province, and we revealed what the province was in fact planning: to exempt themselves from completing the Environmental Assessment of the Bradford Bypass, which was approved with conditions in 2002. The province changed the law to allow the building of “early works” AKA an overpass just north of Bradford, which would connect to a new highway between the 400 and the 404. The plan is to start building this bridge in late 2022, before a budget, engineered drawings, or archaeological assessments are complete. The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans will be asked to issue permits to destroy fish habitat for this project. But significantly, these have not been sought for the project. In effect, the province has decided where the new highway will go, regardless of any of the outcomes of studies still not complete. If you think this is the wrong approach, you are in good company.

We delegated to watershed Councils and got eight municipal resolutions requesting either a Federal Impact Assessment of the Bradford Bypass, an assessment of the highways’ impact on Lake Simcoe’s health, or the completion of further studies not planned by the province’s “streamlined” approach to highway building.

With community partners, we asked for a Federal Impact Assessment once in 2021, and were turned down. Friends requested a second time in 2022 and were turned down again. So we joined six environmental and community organizations, and together with EcoJustice we filed a lawsuit in Federal Court against the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault. The lawsuit challenges the Minister’s failure to designate the Bradford Bypass highway project for a federal impact assessment. (Read the press release)