The Ontario Progressive Conservative government plans to streamline the environmental assessment and land expropriation processes for new transit projects, a move it says is necessary to speed up construction of new lines but which is likely to inflame opposition from residents living near proposed routes.

At a speech to the Economic Club of Canada at the Fairmont Royal York Thursday, Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney outlined the intended changes, which the government plans to introduce when the legislature resumes sitting in two weeks.

She provided few details about what she described as the government’s “practical and responsible plan,” but pledged that if passed it would “enable us to build transit faster by getting shovels in the ground sooner.”

The suite of measures would require new legislation as well as regulatory changes, and would apply only to the province’s four priority transit projects in the GTA: the Ontario Line, Yonge North subway extension, Scarborough extension, and Eglinton West LRT.

Mulroney said the current environmental assessment regime “does not offer the flexibility” required to get new transit projects built quickly.

“I want to be very clear: this does not mean we intend to relax any environmental protections,” she said, asserting the government is “simply looking to improve the efficiency” of approvals.

By provincial law, environmental assessments are required for all large-scale transit projects. The reviews are designed to determine projects’ environmental effects, but also take into account economic and social factors and set out consulting requirements. Existing regulations allow for transit assessments to be completed within six months.

On expropriations, Mulroney said it’s crucial that contractors have “timely access” to land required to build stations and tunnels, and delays to acquiring property have historically been an impediment to getting projects built on time.

She said the government is looking at “modernizing the province’s authority to assemble project lands” while remaining committed to “treating landowners fairly.”

The government is also planning to tackle delays to relocating underground utilities such as gas and phone lines, fibre-optic cables, and water mains in the path of new lines, and would also require landowners to get a permit for any development work that could affect nearby transit projects.

Mulroney claimed if all the proposed measures had been in place earlier, construction of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT could have been completed three years sooner than its official scheduled opening date of September 2021.

Residents in Leslieville, Cabbagetown and other communities along the proposed path of the Ontario Line have already expressed concerns about how quickly the province is pushing ahead with that project. The $11-billion line that Premier Doug Ford announced in April 2019 would stretch 15.5 kilometres between Exhibition Place and the Ontario Science Centre.

Ford’s government has pledged to complete the Ontario Line by 2027, a timeline many experts believe is overly optimistic. The government hopes to open its other three priority projects between 2029 and 2031.

Paul Cnudde lives near Minton Place and Pape Avenue, near where provincial transit agency Metrolinx is planning a tunnel and bridge to allow the Ontario Line to cross the Don River valley. He fears his home will be expropriated for the project.

He called the province’s proposal to speed up approvals and expropriations “really concerning.”

“We know the timeline for the Ontario Line project is really aggressive, and to me that’s a concern, that they just want to kind of steamroll over the expropriation process,” he said.

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“If I do have to sacrifice my home, how am I going to know that I’m going to be adequately compensated?”

Ontario NDP transit critic Jessica Bell said she wants to see details of the government’s proposal, but criticized the plan to speed up assessments.

“I have a hard time seeing how making an environmental assessment less rigorous will lead to a higher quality transit project,” said Bell (University-Rosedale).

“In order to build right, you have to plan well.”

Ben Spurr is a Toronto-based reporter covering transportation. Reach him by email at bspurr@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr

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