Premier Doug Ford says the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris took a wrong turn in 1999 when it privatized Hwy. 407.

Ford panned the move after a speech in Ajax on Tuesday.

“What I don’t want to do and I would never do under our watch is start selling tollways off like the 407,” the Conservative premier told reporters.

“What did they sell it for, $3 billion? And it’s worth what $20 billion now? So I don’t believe in selling off toll roads,” he said.

The Harris government sold the highway for $3.1 billion to a Spanish consortium in May 1999 on the eve of the provincial election that year. The Tories won that campaign with a second majority government.

At the time, the PC premier boasted that the government had built the highway north of Toronto for $1.5 billion and made a profit of $1.6 billion on the sale.

“The taxpayers of this province did very well with this sale,” Harris said shortly before he retired as premier in 2002.

Ford’s criticisms echo those of the Liberals and New Democrats who were in opposition at the time of the sell-off.

Hwy. 407 is now valued at around $28 billion.

Coincidentally, Ford’s late father, Doug Ford Sr., was an MPP in the Tory government in 1999 and Harris’s son, Mike Harris Jr., is an MPP in the current PC caucus.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Robert Benzie is the Star's Queen's Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

Read more about: