Bradford bypass is damaging to wildlifem agriculture, water quality and Indigenous history

The Bradford bypass will have an enormously negative impact on water quality, wildlife habitat and evidence of Indigenous history surrounding and including the Holland River, the East Holland River and the Holland Marsh. As such, it must be subject to a full environmental assessment by the federal government. The Ontario government has weakened the rules for EAs in the Province and is not even waiting for the results of an EA under the weakened rules before starting construction on elements, such as bridges, for this highway.

The impact of water and atmospheric pollution, habitat fragmentation and noise caused by this highway will be enormously destructive to migratory birds, waterfowl, amphibians, fish and small mammals

Much of the proposed route goes through highly productive agricultural land. Agriculture in and adjacent to the Holland Marsh is a vital part of Ontario’s economy and the source of much of our vegetables.

The slopes of these rivers and their tributaries include strandlines of glacial lakes. The land on either side of these strandlines, both upslope and downslope from them, contains documented archaeological sites from the earliest period of Ontario’s history. These area have enormous potential to reveal more of these sites dating from the Palaeo-Indian and Early Archaic periods of history (13,000 to about 8,000 years ago). These sites attest to lifeways of Ontario’s earliest Indigenous peoples following the Ice Age, as published in the academic literature and documented in Culture Resource Management reports by Ontario archaeologists for the Ontario Ministry of Culture over the past 50 years. The archaeological potential of this area, alone, would warrant full environmental assessment. The wetlands below these slopes have potential to preserve organic remains from these early human settlements.

For all of these reasons, the federal government should carry out a full environmental assessment of the Bradford bypass.