The Ford government’s controversial decision to remove bike lanes from major roads in Toronto, and to frustrate the efforts of other cities to install them going forward, has passed its third reading and is set to become law.
On Monday afternoon, the government completed a sped-up legislative process to pass Bill 212 after a shortened committee hearing and the addition of last-minute amendments, including one to insulate the province from lawsuits if people are hurt on streets where bike lanes have been removed.
The bill requires municipalities to seek permission from the provincial government to install new cycling infrastructure that removes a lane of traffic and promises to review those added in the past five years.
It also gives the province the power to remove the entirety of bike lanes on Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue in Toronto.
“We’ll examine the entire stretch to see which parts — ultimately all of it could be removed,” Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said Thursday.
The City of Toronto has claimed removing those bike lanes, which cost roughly $27 million to install, could cost as much as $48 million. That’s a suggestion the government has rejected.
On Monday, Premier Doug Ford appeared to indicate the bike lane changes were only about the province’s capital city.
“We are really focused on the congestion in Toronto, it’s the worst congestion in North America, third worst in the entire world,” he said an at unrelated event in Burlington, Ont.
“We’re focusing on three or four roads to get it moving, so we’re going to (work) collaboratively with the mayor. She believes the Bloor Street West (lanes) should not be there, the previous mayor admits that he made a mistake.”
Last week, the government also made amendments to the law to prohibit lawsuits as a direct or indirect result of actions taken to remove bike lanes.
At the same time, both the premier and transportation minister began explicitly telling cyclists to ride on side streets.
“I think the safer thing for a cyclist to do would be to make a decision to go on streets that are safer, less volume and that’s what we believe is the right way to do it, on our secondary streets, where there is much less traffic volume” Sarkaria said, also on Thursday.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles claimed that adding the clause was an admission from the government that people could be harmed when bike lanes are removed.
“I think it is interesting that it was an afterthought,” she told reporters on Monday. “They threw this into the legislation after they started hearing from everybody and realized, I think, that yes, people will probably die and more people will be injured. Without question.”
The controversial legislation makes other changes, including expediting the construction process for Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass and altering environmental assessment and expropriation rules.
It is set to receive Royal Assent and become law on Monday afternoon, barely an hour after it passed third reading.