Ontario tables legislation that includes ban on some bike lanes across province

Ontario tabled its first bill of the fall legislative sitting on Monday, in a bid to give the province veto power over some bike lanes, accelerate highway construction projects and ease environmental assessments for new highways.

The province is also trying to give itself power through regulation to remove existing bike lanes, although it's not clear how that process will work.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford promised last week to clear some bike lanes, and the government appears to have several Toronto examples in mind.

"Not everybody can use a bike to get around," said Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria.

"These are some of our major arterial roads, whether it be Bloor or University or Yonge Street. People need to get to and from work. We need to make this city a better place, an easier place to get around."

The bill would require municipalities to ask the province for permission to install bike lanes when they would remove a lane of vehicle traffic.

In its overall bid to ease gridlock, the bill also seeks to facilitate construction 24 hours a day and accelerate property acquisitions.

It is also exempting the planned Highway 413 project from the provincial Environmental Assessment Act.

Instead, the bill would create a new, sped-up version of the assessment process under a new Highway 413 Act. The same process would be applied to extensions of Highways 410 and 427, which are expected to meet up with the new expressway north of Toronto.

The provincial parliament returned as a hive of activity Monday after a 19-week summer break.

The first day back began with Energy Minister Stephen Lecce announcing he will introduce legislation to make it easier for new homes and businesses to connect to the electricity grid. Lecce said under the current rules, the process is slow and expensive, increasing costs for home buyers and deterring home building.

Lecce said right now, a residential development of 200 homes would pay the full cost of building new infrastructure needed to connect to the grid, but under his planned legislation to reduce upfront capital costs the project would only have to pay for the electricity load the homes will use.

He said the current system is making building difficult in new areas, because no one wants to take on the risk and the extra cost.

The Progressive Conservative government has pledged to get 1.5 million homes built by 2031 and it has not yet met any of its annual targets toward that goal, though it came very close last year after it started counting long-term care beds.

Housing Minister Paul Calandra has pointed to external factors, including high interest rates, as hampering building, and developers have been pushing all levels of government to reduce or eliminate various fees they pay.

Lecce's announcement follows his pledge last week to soon release his plan for how to significantly boost electricity supply in the province, after the Independent Electricity System Operator said demand will surge by 75 per cent between now and 2050.

Health care under the microscope

Also Monday morning, Premier Doug Ford appointed former federal Liberal health minister Dr. Jane Philpott to head a new team mandated to connect every Ontarian with a primary-care provider within five years. There are currently about 2.5 million people in Ontario without a family doctor, according to the Ontario Medical Association, and that figure is expected to nearly double in coming years.

The province's beleaguered health-care system was a primary theme as the parties returned to Queen's Park, with both the NDP and Liberals saying they are going to put a spotlight on the issue during this legislative session.

Speaking to reporters, Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie criticized the 19-week break, which she referred to as "Ford's endless summer vacation," saying Ontarians are struggling without family doctors and dealing with long wait times at hospitals and to see specialists.

"This is not right and this is not what health care should look like in Ontario. So our job is to use every day to drag your priorities to the attention of this premier because clearly he's ignoring health care," she said.

During question period, NDP Marit Stiles asked Health Minister Sylvia Jones about reports from doctors that home care and palliative patients in the province are facing shortages of supplies they need. Stiles said patients are being sent to emergency rooms because their supplies have run out, patients in palliative care are unable to get sedatives and people facing life-threatening infections are without proper sanitary supplies.

Jones said the shortages are unacceptable and that she is working with Ontario Health atHome on what she categorized as a logistics issue. She said she has directed the agency to reimburse any patient, family or clinician who has paid out of pocket for necessary equipment.

In a statement, Ontario Health atHome said it has new supply contracts as of Sept. 24 and it is doing everything possible to stabilize the delivery of critical medical items.

Election question looms

Opposition parties say some of Ford's recent remarks and announcements, such as the idea to dig a tunnel for traffic and transit under Highway 401, are evidence he is focused more on electioneering than governing.

Ford has not ruled out calling an election in 2025, before the next fixed election date in June 2026.

Last week, CBC News confirmed the Ford government plans to send $200 rebate cheques to every Ontarian as part its fall economic statement.

Speaking alongside Crombie, Liberal MPP John Fraser said the rebates are an attempt to distract voters from the "lacklustre" state of the health-care system.

"We're supposed to have an election in 2026, but Doug Ford wants to move it up to next year because in 2026, one in three Ontarians won't have a family doctor and so they won't vote for him," Fraser said.

"He knows 2.5 million Ontarians don't have one right now, so he's trying to beg their forgiveness with $200 giveaways," he said.