Happy Halloween, everybody! With Halloween and this Sunday’s daylight savings time change being among the most dangerous times of the year for vulnerable road users, Doug Ford’s war on bikes has taken an even scarier turn. When Bill 212 was originally announced on Monday, October 21, Schedule 4 only stated it would require municipalities to get provincial approval to build bike lanes which remove traffic lanes, as well as conduct reviews of existing bike lanes. Today, the Ford government confirmed Bill 212 would be amended to require the removal of bike lanes along parts of Bloor Street, University Avenue, and Yonge Street while the Environmental Registry has been updated accordingly. It’s beyond disgusting how the Ford government would throw almost fifty years of calls for bike lanes on Bloor out the window and it’s worth providing an update on where things stand.
Status of Bill
Bill 212 – ridiculously known as the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act – is currently at the Second Reading stage. Once the Ford government shamelessly uses their majority to pass the bill at second reading, it would then go to a committee where members of the public can issue written submissions or register to speak, while committee members review the bill in detail and propose amendments based on the feedback. The report is then sent back to the legislature for Third Reading followed by Royal Assent when it gets passed.
There are a few situations where the committee stage would get skipped. If the bill has unanimous consent – which won’t happen in this case – it would then go straight to Third Reading. For private members’ bills, the committee may choose not to hold hearings and let the bill die when the election gets called which happened to a previous attempt to bring in vulnerable road user legislation. There are also time allocation procedures to limit debate, but I was having trouble identifying how it would lead to the committee stage being skipped when reviewing the Legislative Assembly of Ontario’s website. If you know how this works provincially or federally, please call it out!
Diverse Base of Opposition
At the time of writing, Cycle Toronto’s petition has 14,600 signatures along with an additional 2,000 e-mails sent to the Premier’s office. Additional petitions were issued by Leadnow and some politicians such as Ottawa Councillor Ariel Troster. Troster’s letter opposing Bill 212 has been supported by 13 councillors – a majority – but not by Mayor Mark Sutcliffe. That wasn’t surprising given he wanted the Queen Elizabeth Driveway closures scaled back in 2023 which provided additional space for people walking or biking by the Rideau Canal Trail. However, these closures continued in at least a limited capacity this year unlike in Toronto which scrapped ActiveTO on Lake Shore West in June 2022.
Since last week’s Rally and Ride for Road Safety was held, the Bloor Annex BIA came out in support of keeping the Bloor bike lanes given business activity increased along the corridor since the bike lanes were first installed in the Annex back in 2016. Beck Taxi’s Kristine Hubbard – who spoke in favour of keeping the Bloor bike lanes in 2017 – reaffirmed that support claiming cars and drivers are the problem. Earlier this week, letters opposing Bill 212 were issued by Green Communities Canada, a letter signed by 120 physicians and researchers at the University of Toronto, the Ontario Professional Planners Institute, and – believe it or not – the Ontario Traffic Council! Media outlets such as CBC and the Toronto Star issued their own fact checks on the Ford government’s bike lane claims, while the Toronto Star published several pieces recently including a perspective from Montréal, the impact on food couriers, and a letter calling on the federal government to invoke the rarely used disallowance policy.
Closing Thoughts
With this demonstration of opposition coming from all corners of society, it makes me wonder what’s it going to take to force the Ford government to withdraw Bill 212? We know they had to abandon plans before such as developing the Greenbelt and using the notwithstanding clause to violate collective bargaining rights. There is also the possibility of using the courts to fight Bill 212. Assuming the rumours of an election next spring are true, we need at least an injunction to postpone the legislation until that election gets called. When that election gets called, we road safety advocates need to work with other groups across Ontario to defeat the Ford government, as well as secure commitments from the NDP, Liberals, and Greens to repeal Bill 212 in the event they at least deny Ford a third straight majority.
Hi Robert; all - hamish. This is a good compilation of pushback and supports, thanks. The umbrella group of Association of Municipalities of Ontario has also put out a fairly strong statement at https://www.amo.on.ca/policy/finance-infrastructure-and-economy/province-introduce-legislation-governing-bicycle-lanes . They do have a strong (though false) majority, so we need to do much, including asking whomever we know with Con MPPs outside of the cores of cities to push them, including nudging on the distraction of this issue vs. say, getting the Eglinton Line 5 open, finally. In times of emergency, the federal government has used the disallowance powers, and we do have a climate emergency, so just because the Liberals are on the chicken side when it comes to defending democracy in Canada, doesn't mean to say we shouldn't try, as the status of cities in this greenhouse century does need to change.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, a bike ride in east end led by MPP McMahon tmrw at 1 pm at Main/Danforth