01/28/2024
Even car users say Greenbelt is no place for new highways
We know that pressing problems like the climate emergency, high food prices and traffic congestion won’t be solved by wasting billions of dollars on new highways, writes Gideon Forman.
By Gideon Forman
Friday, January 12, 2024
Ontarians don’t want a highway through the Greenbelt but do want government to invest more money in public transit, a new EKOS poll shows.
Overall, 74 per cent agree the “Greenbelt is no place for new highways.” In Toronto, that figure rises to 81 per cent.
In fact, this majority support for Greenbelt protection
So why is the Ford government so set on spending $10 billion f taxpayer money to build it?
Could it doholds across every region and demographic EKOS probed. It reaches 81 per cent among young adults and 74 per cent among older adults. It even hits 70 per cent among folks who rely on the car.
To verify this finding, EKOS posed a second question. It asked survey participants to agree or disagree with the statement, “I’d be more likely to support a government if it kept highways out of the Greenbelt.” Overall, 73 per cent of respondents agreed, and agreement cut across all demographics. For instance, 70 per cent of high school-educated respondents agreed, but so did 77 per cent of university-educated folks.
These questions asked about highways in general. But what about a specific highway, namely Ontario’s proposed Highway 413, that would run from Vaughan to Milton and destroy hundreds of acres of protected forest and wetlands and thousands of acres of farmland? What do Ontarians feel about that?
EKOS told survey participants that many farmers oppose 413 and then asked, “Do you agree or disagree with farmers’ opposition to Highway 413?”
Overall, 81 per cent of respondents side with farmers in objecting to this expressway. In fact, there is strong majority opposition across all regions and demographics, including age, income and level of education.
Eighty-eight per cent of Torontonians oppose the highway, but so do 73 per cent of residents in the 905 belt (where the road would be built).
Importantly, 79 per cent of folks who rely on the automobile for their daily transport back the farmers. When it comes to 413, farmers, city dwellers, suburbanites and car users are mostly united: they don’t want it. And they represent a pretty powerful segment of the population.
When EKOS asked Ontarians if they agree or disagree with government spending more on public transit, the pollster found widespread agreement. The responses were broken down by respondents’ main mode of transportation.
Not surprisingly, among people who use transit, agreement stood at 95 per cent. But even among folks who rely on the car, agreement reached 74 per cent.
Majority support for increased transit funding appears across all demographics and regions surveyed. For instance, in Toronto, with its wicked traffic problem, 90 per cent of respondents support this funding. But even in northern Ontario, where traffic is less of an issue, support stands at 77 per cent.
There are some differences across demographics. For example, far more women than men believe the Greenbelt is no place for new highways. But overall, the consensus is striking: a strong majority of Ontarians support additional transit spending and oppose highways, such as 413, that would chew up the Greenbelt.
Have we become a province of environmentalists? Perhaps.
Or perhaps we’re just possessed of common sense. We know pressing problems like the climate emergency, high food prices and traffic congestion won’t be solved by wasting billions of dollars on new highways that bulldoze trees and pave our farmland.
Far better to use highways we already have, like the 407, and get drivers out of their cars by offering top-notch transit that’s reliable and convenient.
The EKOS poll, commissioned by the David Suzuki Foundation, drew on a random sample of 834 Ontario adults. The margin of error for the total sample is plus/minus 3.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Gideon Forman is a transportation policy analyst at the David Suzuki Foundation. David Suzuki Foundation Greenbelt West Coalition Stop Sprawl HamOnt Page Stop Sprawl Durham Alliance for a Liveable Ontario
