WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Please write a letter by Wednesday, May 26 to Barrie & Innisfil councils voicing your opposition to the Bradford Bypass.
Last week, the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury sent rallying letters to neighbouring municipalities, asking councils to formally declare support for the Bradford Bypass.
The letters proposed that councils pass a resolution stating in part, “Whereas the new highway will offer considerable benefit to the south Simcoe region as it will reduce congestion, improve the movements of goods and materials, and strengthen economic prosperity of the region, Now therefore be it resolved that the Council… strongly supports the Highway 400-404 Freeway Link.”
They are being mis-led. We need these municipalities to insist on a real exploration of alternative routes, and insist on a process whereby the results of environmental studies inform the decision about whether to, and where to, build a road that will help alleviate some congestion in Bradford.
While some municipalities have already supported the motion, Innisfil and Barrie will be making decisions at council meetings this week.
Please speak out against the Bradford Bypass by sending a letter to the Town of Innisfil and Town of Barrie opposing the motion.
You can use the Innisfil template letter or Barrie template letter, or write your own comments based on the points below.
For Innisfil:
- Email your letter to: clerksoffice@innisfil.ca
- Subject: Council agenda item F.1, May 26, 2021: Bradford Bypass
- Send letter by: May 26, 2021
For Barrie:
- Email your letter to: cityclerks@barrie.ca
- Subject: General council meeting May 31, 2021: Bradford Bypass
- Send letter by: May 26, 2021
- Please request that your email should be included in circulation list for May 31 General Council meeting. Anonymous emails won’t be circulated.
Opposition points:
- The harmful increase to carbon emissions that this highway will bring, especially in context of the climate crisis. Building new highways that do little to reduce congestion is not climate leadership, and instead locks us into a pattern of development that only worsens our climate resilience.
- Protecting one of Ontario’s most significant wetlands - the Holland Marsh and Lake Simcoe watershed - from habitat destruction and water contamination. These were impacts decided by the original Environmental Assessment from 1997.
- Impacts to Lake Simcoe which are not being considered, comprehended, or studied. The route has been decided BEFORE studies have been completed. This means that regardless of potential impacts of this highway, it’s going to be built according to the route plan. A lake as important as Lake Simcoe and with its degraded state must be treated as more than an afterthought. This highway runs through the headwaters of Lake Simcoe and that level of significance has not been considered.
- No alternatives have been studied to ensure that this high-cost venture is the best way to move people and goods. Consideration should be given to more investments in the Barrie GO line, upgrading existing regional roads, and maximizing use of the 407. With COVID hurting the finances of municipalities, whatever infrastructure investments the province makes needs to maximize the greatest good.
- 60% of the highway runs through the Greenbelt. We collectively must protect this important stretch of farmland and natural heritage. Cutting through our legacy with a 4-6 lane highway with 5-7 interchanges is incongruent with the vision and importance of the Greenbelt.
- We are in a climate crisis and Lake Simcoe’s health is in decline. Weeds, algae, fouled beaches, and warmer waters all threaten its delicate ecosystem. Why are you even considering putting a highway through the most sensitive part of the watershed?
- The Province of Ontario is giving themselves permission to start building the bridges before environmental studies are complete.
- There’s no evidence to support the claims about commuters time-saving. Highways create more traffic, they don’t solve traffic. The Ministry of Transportation has said it could even be a toll road, in which case it would not take trucks off existing routes.
- There is a significant aboriginal archaeological site that lies in the proposed path of the highway.
For more information:
https://rescuelakesimcoe.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Fact-Sheet-Bradford-Bypass.pdf