QUEEN’S PARK –Tim Hudak, MPP for Niagara West-Glanbrook is urging Dalton McGuinty to include roads and highways like the Mid-Peninsula Corridor in his recently announced plan to streamline the environmental assessment (EA) process.

According to a February 8th media report, the McGuinty Government has decided to put strict time limits on environmental assessments for transit projects. Currently, EA’s can drag on for many years. However, road and highway projects would remain in the slow lane. As we enter the fifth year of the McGuinty Government, the Mid-Peninsula Corridor EA is still ongoing.

Under existing rules, environmental assessments on projects take on average two years. In Toronto, the TTC’s Spadina subway extension EA took three years and it was just an update of a previous assessment. Under McGuinty’s proposals, environmental assessments on transit projects would have to be completed within 6 months, and would only give the environment minister 35 days to decide if the project should go forward, once the EA is completed.

Hudak is disappointed that road and highway projects will not benefit from the same streamlined process. For example, the Mid-Peninsula Corridor has become the road to nowhere under the McGuinty Liberals. The original accelerated Mid-Peninsula Corridor EA process launched under the PCs was scrapped by the McGuinty Liberals after the October, 2003 election. Four and a half years later, there has been little if any progress on the needed highway.

“Niagara and Hamilton drivers want to see the Mid-Peninsula Corridor become a reality so they can spend more time with their families and less time in their cars,” said Tim Hudak. “Unfortunately, it has been over four years since Dalton’s McGuinty’s first election and the Mid-Peninsula corridor is still stuck in reverse.”

According to the February 13th edition of the Welland Tribune, even former 2003 McGuinty Liberal Candidate and current Mayor of Port Colborne Vance Badawey says the province has been slow to deliver on such crucial infrastructure projects like the Niagara-GTA corridor.

"No doubt, taxpayers want to see a more efficient EA process that minimizes the environmental impact of a project without needless and expensive procedural delays," said Hudak. "However, the same rules should apply to roads as they do to rail lines. Sadly, the Mid-Peninsula Corridor has become a poster child for stalled transportation investments that hobble our economy and keep drivers jammed in gridlock," said Hudak.