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Opening Highway 407 alleviates traffic congestion, says lobby effort

January 16, 2025   ·   1 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

The public discourse about the proposed Highway 413 construction may be avoided if the province is able to buy back the lease it sold to privatize Highway 407.

And at least one Mono councillor has suggested the municipality get behind the effort to convince the provincial government to undertake a study to determine the feasibility of such a move.

Councillor Elaine Capes tabled a notice of motion during council’s Jan. 14 meeting. It was to give council colleagues notice that the issue would be included on the agenda for the next meeting. A Mono resident kicked off the discussion early when she asked a question about Capes’ notice of motion at the Jan. 14 meeting’s start.

Mono’s municipal government has long been on record as being opposed to the construction of a proposed Highway 413. Many municipalities along the proposed route and environmental groups have come out against the construction.

Coun. Melinda Davie said Capes’ notice of motion specifically mentions Highway 407, the taxpayer-funded thoroughfare that was then sold by the government of former Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris.

“Well it relates,” the resident said. “It’s connected. I know a lot of people do know about it, but a lot of people don’t.”

The resident suggested council include a map of the proposed Highway 413 route and other information in the next municipal newsletter.

“A very succinct brief thing that says these are the options and this is how it affects taxes or the province,” she said.

In 1998, then-premier Mike Harris passed Bill 70 which permitted the $3 billion sale of Highway 407 to a private consortium on a 99-year lease. It enabled the consortium to set the price charged to motorists for accessing the highway.

And that privatization has led to significant toll increases over the years, Capes said in her notice of motion.

Those steep tolls deter motorists from availing of Highway 407. And that increases the traffic on the other public roads.

Capes said in her motion that those high tolls disproportionately affect low-income and mid-income residents who rely on the highway to work.

Trucking companies avoid Highway 407 because of the tolls, which push them in high volumes to other roads. In fact, a Transport Action Ontario study suggests a toll subsidy for trucks could increase truck usage of Highway 407 and reduce volume on other roads.

Toll revenues from Highway 407 benefit private entities while residents continue to face high costs and high traffic volumes. Lower tolls from public ownership would increase Highway 407 usage, alleviate traffic on other highways, and generate revenue through increased usage.

Less truck volume on other roads would create safer and less congested travel for citizens commuting to work outside of Dufferin County.

Capes called on the Town of Mono to support a proposal by Vaughan by way of official letters to Premier Doug Ford and Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria advocating for a feasibility study for buying back the lease for Highway 407.

According to Dufferin County statistics, as many as 51.4 per cent of residents commute outside the county for their jobs, Capes said.

“This puts us in the second place in the highest in the province in this category,” she said. “So there are a lot of people who would be potentially beneficially impacted.”

Of Mono residents, 2,135 residents commute down to workplaces on Highway 10. Of those, 355 go to work in Brampton, 220 go to Mississauga, and 175 go to Toronto.

Capes said public access to the 407 will reduce commuters’ costs and fewer heavy trucks would be beneficial in other ways.

“Not to undermine the fact that this would add environmental protection reasons and could deflate the current pace to build the 413 which, I think, would also be beneficial,” she said. “So everybody wins.”

Davie said that Ford recently committed to not buying back the Highway 407 lease. That lease now is worth $35 billion.

“I’m not sure where that money is going to come from,” Davie said.

If the province were to spend that kind of coin to buy back the thoroughfare, Davie said higher tolls would be necessary to recoup that cost.

“They’re going to have to get that $35 billion back,” she said. “I don’t see where this (motion) is going to go when the government has already said they’re not interested in doing it.”

“How much is it going to cost to build the 413 that they can save to buy back the 407 that’s already there?” Capes said. “I think there’s no harm in pushing and continuing to push what we think is important onto the desks of the persons making the decisions about things.”

“For the record, I think the decision to sell the 407 was one of the stupidest decisions,” Mayor John Creelman said.

Mono resident Sharon Somerville urged council to get behind the feasibility study lobby effort.

“I think it is an important piece of the conversation about the transportation grid and where we’re going with it in the province,” Somerville said and added that the Mono motion excludes an important detail in the Vaughn motion.

“It’s actually not buying back the 407 because we still own it,” she said. “It was a lease situation. It would be renegotiating the lease. But the piece that is missing is the piece that talks about establishing a pilot project on the 407 to reduce or remove truck tolls.”

Capes said she supports withdrawing her notice of motion in favour of a more Mono-centric motion on the issue.

Leasing the highway would mean the province gets some measure of income from Highway 407.

“Those numbers are available publicly,” Somerville said, and added that the tolls on that highway are the highest in the world.

She said it’s important to note that the per-dollar profit from the highway is 78 cents.

“It is the most successful corporation in the country,” she said. “They make 78 cents for every dollar. It’s a monopoly, so it’s a pretty good gig.”

And, she said, Ontario reduced the fees paid to the province by $1 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic because 407 traffic dropped during the social shutdown.

“Wasn’t that nice of them?” Creelman said.


Readers Comments (1)

  1. Sharon Sommerville says:

    The feasibility study could include considering purchasing 6.76% of the 407 which is currently for sale by Atkins-Realis Canada,over a period of 30-90 years. It would be a way for the province to be a part of decision making at private road operator.

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