Federal Liberal incumbents would lose significant support if they fail to act to protect environmental values within federal jurisdiction
Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – As January 2025 deadlines near for federal decisions to require impact assessment and protect a key endangered species along the 413 route, a large, fine-grained poll of GTA voters, commissioned by Environmental Defence, shows that they would punish Federal Liberals for deciding not to act.
Across the GTA, Liberal support would fall from 20 per cent to 11 per cent if the government decides to let Highway 413 proceed without an independent federal impact assessment. The damage would be especially severe in the cluster of Liberal-held seats in southern Toronto, where the LPC would shed more than half its support, falling to third, behind the NDP and Conservatives. However, Liberal incumbents would also suffer along the 413 route – in those areas, Liberal support would drop by six points, to just 16 per cent.
The consequences would be even more stark if the federal Liberals refuse to use federal jurisdiction to protect endangered species habitat and navigable waterways from the proposed Highway 413. More than half of GTA Liberal voters say they’d vote for another party, or withhold their vote altogether, if that happens. In southern Toronto’s Liberal-held ridings, LPC support would plummet to 11 per cent, less than one third the 36 per cent that would go to the NDP, their main competitors in that region. However, allowing Ontario to destroy endangered species habitat for 413 would also see Liberal incumbents relegated to third place in their seats near the highway’s proposed route.
There are 29 federally listed species at risk of extinction along the 413 highway corridor, and at least 24 navigable waterways. It is clear from the federal government’s own Recovery Strategy and Action Plan for the Redside Dace that much of the most important remaining Redside Dace habitat would be either directly or indirectly destroyed if current plans for 413 are allowed to proceed.
“Driving species to extinction, bulldozing through the Greenbelt and destroying rivers for an unnecessary and costly highway that will make gridlock worse is a bad idea. Ontarians expect the mega-highway to be thoroughly evaluated for alternatives and impact risks. This polling shows that the people of Ontario expect the federal government to do its job and protect the values under its jurisdiction,” says Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence.
Background information:
- The Minister of Environment and Climate Change must decide whether the federal government will re-designate Highway 413 for a federal impact assessment by January 19, 2025 and the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard must issue a habitat protection order for Redside Dace by January 25, 2025.
- For its part, the Ontario government has recently cancelled Environmental Assessment Act coverage of the Highway 413 project and previously gutted the provincial Endangered Species Act. Premier Ford has publicly dismissed the need for considering the environmental impacts of the Highway.
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.
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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:
Carolyn Townend, Environmental Defence
media@environmentaldefence.ca
