Ministry of Transportation Update

On Thursday, February 6, Minister of Transportation, Caroline Mulroney spoke to the Economic Club of Canada. Mulroney outlined the government’s plans for the upcoming legislative session. According to Mulroney, the changes would “…enable us to build transit faster by getting shovels in the ground sooner.”

The Ontario Progressive Conservative government plans to streamline the environmental assessment and land expropriation processes for new transit projects, a move that will speed up construction.

These changes will require new legislation as well as regulatory changes, and would apply only to the province’s four priority transit projects in the GTA: the Ontario Line, Yonge North subway extension, Scarborough extension, and Eglinton West LRT.

Mulroney acknowledged that the current environmental assessment regime “does not offer the flexibility” required to build new transit projects quickly.

Under the current legislation, Environmental Assessments (EA) are required for all large-scale transit projects. The reviews are designed to determine projects’ environmental effects, but also take into account economic and social factors and set out consulting requirements.

Mulroney went on to share the government’s intentions to tackle delays to relocating underground utilities such as gas and phone lines, fibre-optic cables, and water mains in the path of new transit lines.