Guest column in the Mississauga News: August 30, 2006
Keeping Mississauga moving

In the next 25 years, an estimated two million more vehicles will be on our GTA roads. That’s about the equivalent of giving every child, adult, and senior in Peel Region two new vehicles and sending them all out on the road at the same time. The future traffic congestion could cost Ontario’s economy up to $28 million a day, and force the average Mississauga commuter to spend approximately four times as long behind the wheel of a car on the commute to work each day. As if we not spending too much time commuting already!

Ontario’s frustrating status-quo originates from successive provincial governments backing away from any significant option other than building roads. Each year, population growth: both from within Ontario and the rest of Canada; and from immigration; has the net effect of moving the equivalent of the population of Kingston into the GTA each and every year. This has been the growth pattern for more than 30 years, and will continue as far into the future as Ontario can foresee.

At a public forum meeting at Kindree Public School in Meadowvale, members of the public; representatives of GO Transit; and I discussed the specifics about the first GO train station to be constructed in Mississauga in 25 years. The new Lisgar GO train station, to open in mid-2007, will help divert much of the traffic along the clogged east-west corridors on Derry Road; Aquitaine Avenue; Battleford Road; Britannia Road; and Thomas Street by providing a north-south commute to reach the GO Milton Line. The new station will provide parking for about 900 cars; make the GO and Mississauga Transit connections shorter; and provide immediate relief to Mississauga commuters.

The Lisgar GO station is just one piece in untangling the complicated problem of GTA gridlock. Ontario is making multiple, strategic investments in our public transportation and highway systems. Ontario is also funding an Environmental Assessment by GO Transit on the feasibility of a third track on the Milton GO line. This third track is essential to all-day GO train service to and from Toronto, providing consistent, off-peak train service to Mississauga residents all day.

Ontario has invested more than $73 million in new GO bi-level rail cars, and new GO buses, to help move more people across the GTA more efficiently and comfortably. With GO ridership expected to double within the next 20 to 30 years, these investments are crucial for our transit infrastructure.

Ontario has also followed through on its commitment to provide local municipalities with two cents per litre share of Gas Tax funding. This means more than $10 million in 2005-06 for Mississauga Transit for new buses and service expansion. The 2006 Ontario Budget also provided Mississauga $65 million to develop a Mississauga Transitway – a dedicated bus line along highway 403 and Eglinton Avenue.

Many people still need to drive to work. Ontario is encouraging car pooling, and opened the first High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes in the province last year. Two HOV lanes run east and west along Highway 403. Drivers with one or more passengers now benefit from reductions in their commuting times wherever HOV lanes exist. They have been a success everywhere they have been implemented.

Approximately $1.2 trillion worth of goods travel annually along our highways. That commerce defines the economic well being of the GTA and Mississauga. Ontario is now implementing a $3.4 billion, five-year Southern Ontario Highway Program, a comprehensive approach to our highway network that will help repair 1,600 kilometres of highways, build 64 new bridges, and 130 kilometres of new highways. Surface improvement work has already begun on Highway 401 and Highway 427, as well as the first phase of the northward extension of Highway 410.

The traffic gridlock problem in Mississauga and the GTA will not go away over night. Ontario is playing catch-up. Its strategic investments in transportation infrastructure will ensure that our highways more closely resemble transportation corridors than they do parking lots in the year to come.