Residents looking forward to the widening of Williams Parkway in Brampton to ease traffic congestion are going to have to wait a little longer — maybe indefinitely.

Council approved a motion put forward by wards 1 and 5 councillors Paul Vicente and Rowena Santos on Oct. 16 to put a halt to the project — first approved in 2004 — to allow staff time for further study.

Following years of planning, environmental studies and public consultations, the city is installing noise walls in preparation to widen Williams Parkway from four to six lanes.

However, despite the time and resources already invested, Vicente and Santos said they don’t believe six-lane roads still fit into the city’s new 2040 Vision plan and would like all of its already approved lane-expansion projects revisited.

“The vision doesn’t prioritize roads it prioritizes pedestrians, cyclists and transit ahead of cars,” Vicente told council before tabling his motion on Oct. 16. “The idea that Williams Parkway is to be widened first started to circulate through the halls here at the city more than 15 years ago … I think it’s time that the city rethinks what it’s doing with Williams Parkway and with other road widenings in general.”

While council supported staff reporting back in the second quarter of 2020 for informational purposes, some councillors raised concerns about ignoring current and future congestion issues.

According to ward 2 and 6 representative Michael Palleschi, Williams Parkway was originally designed to accommodate expansion. While supporting more public transit and bike lanes, he also pointed to growing congestion-related safety concerns council is also trying to address.

“If there was one road in the City of Brampton that I would say needs expansion and needed expansion many, many years ago it would have been Williams Parkway,” he said.

Wards 3 and 4 Coun. Jeff Bowman echoed similar concerns, adding even transit vehicles and the growing number of electric vehicles on city streets still need widened roads to drive on.

“By 2040 we’re going to have a million people here, supposedly. People are still going to have cars … Even if half the next 200,000 people that come here use active transportation instead of cars, we’re still going to have congested roads,” he said.