Councillors in support of new developer-fuelled highway, while endangered species don’t stand a chance

The vast networks of pavement serve as great connectors to our major cities, but they fragment the natural habitat of thousands of mammals and birds, all of whom must make the treacherous crossing of roads filled with speeding vehicles to feed and breed and migrate between seasons.

Now, the provincial government wants to build another of these highways, directly through one of Southern Ontario’s last remaining pieces of pristine habitat, home to many endangered and threatened species.

The GTA West Highway, a planned corridor through Peel that will bisect the Greenbelt, border the Oak Ridges Moraine and cut across other sensitive habitats, while propelling urban sprawl and more vehicle use, is moving ahead with the support of Peel councillors who also claim to support the environment.

Critics call it outdated transit planning, with runway-sized swaths of pavement and accompanying housing subdivisions that will destroy and fragment habitats for a number of the province’s most vulnerable species at a time when the planet is facing record loss of biodiversity.

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Published on November 12, 2019 in The Pointer Brampton and The Pointer Mississauga