NEWS RELEASE
RESCUE LAKE SIMCOE COALITION
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On Oct. 22, MP Leah Taylor Roy read a petition in the House of Commons to raise awareness about federal responsibilities related to the Bradford Bypass.
The petition originated with the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition, a local organization that is raising awareness about the impacts of the bypass, a 16-kilometre highway planned north of Bradford, straddling York Region and Simcoe County’s south end, and highways 400 and 404.
The petition and its signers ask Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change to use their powers to reduce the impacts of the highway on Lake Simcoe’s fish.
MP Taylor Roy says, “Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition is working tirelessly to protect the health of Lake Simcoe, as well as our green spaces and farmlands. As a member of Parliament committed to representing the concerns of Canadians and safeguarding our environment, I was pleased to present their petition to the House of Commons. The petition calls on the federal government to conduct an environmental assessment of the proposed Bradford Bypass, as the provincial government, whose responsibility it is, has failed to do so. As a Canadian and a resident of the Lake Simcoe watershed, I have cherished the beauty of the lake throughout my life. I am deeply troubled by the disregard this provincial government has shown for the health and future of Lake Simcoe and our environment.”
Fish are both a federal and a provincial responsibility, but the groups want the feds to act as a backstop to the province. They charge the province is not taking this responsibility seriously. For instance, AECOM consultants hired by the province to study the environmental conditions did no fishing, dip netting, or electrofishing to try to find the American eel, which is endangered, and had been identified as being present by the Williams Treaties First Nations. The habitat of the endangered redside dace flows into rivers that would be affected by the bypass. AECOM, for MTO, did not fish in these rivers, in their fish and fish habitat study.
Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition executive director Claire Malcolmson relays, “You cannot find what you say you’re looking for if you look for it really badly. While Ontario’s minister of the environment at the time told fishermen, ‘We’ve got your back,’ this is what was going on. It’s total doublespeak.”
Of particular importance to the environmental and the angling community is the outstanding authorization from DFO for potential harm to fish and fish habitat. The Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition has asked the federal agency to proactively request to review the province’s fisheries studies. Despite obvious harm to fish and fish habitat and potential contraventions under the Fisheries Act, the province has not made meaningful steps to protect fisheries. Nor is the province requesting a review from the feds. Instead they are going to wait to see if Canada takes any steps towards enforcing the Fisheries Act.
“From our perspective, a project of this scale will inevitably cause some harm to the local fisheries and potentially beyond. Therefore, at the very least, Ontario must apply for a request for review,” says Adam Weir, fisheries biologist for the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters. “We hope this will eventually lead to better conservation of the impacted waterways.”
The DFO completed a preliminary review of the project in 1998 and concluded that the project would result in harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat. It is unclear why this conclusion would have changed 20 years later, or if any conclusion was drawn at all by the DFO in recent years. Bypass opponents’ research discovered that the feds have never denied Fisheries Act authorizations or Species at Risk Act permits or letters of advice within the Nottawasaga or Lake Simcoe watersheds.
While the projects’ opponents blame the revival of this decades-old project on Doug Ford, they are frustrated by the federal government’s lack of interest in using the powers they have to protect fish, other animals and their habitats.
“I worry that if the feds don’t do their job, there will be no care taken to protect fish and wildlife, like the barn swallow, the green heron, and the Blanding’s turtle. At this stage in Earth’s history, the right thing to do is build sensitively, avoiding these creatures and their habitats. But no alternative to this route has been explored for more than 20 years,” says the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition’s Malcolmson.
Having already exempted the Bradford Bypass from the typical conditions of an environmental assessment in 2021, the Ministry of Transportation introduced similar legislation to fast-track Highway 413 on Monday.
The full text of the federal petition can be found here: For use federal petition bypass spring 2024.docx.
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