Immediate widening of Highway 3 voted down at Queen's Park

The immediate widening of Highway 3 from two to four lanes was voted down at Queen's Park on Thursday.

Essex NDP MPP Taras Natyshak tabled a motion that asked the province to widen the road between Essex and Leamington this summer when it is ripped up for resurfacing.

"It calls on you to deliver what you promised — to finish what [Liberal MPP] Bruce [Crozier] started," Natyshak said in the Legislature on Thursday, referencing former Essex Liberal MPP Bruce Crozier.

Natyshak claimed that in 2006, the government approved the widening of Highway 3 from Windsor to Leamington, and promised that the entire project would be completed by this year.

Most of the project is complete, but the last phase, from Essex to Leamington, remains unfinished.

"In 2013, we were told that shovels would be in the ground by 2018, but late last year, we found that the government is rebuilding this section of Highway 3 without the four-laning," Natyshak said. "Does this mean that the government intends on ripping up the road, repaving it and then ripping it up again in 2018 for the four-laning, or has the government decided to postpone the highway widening for another generation?"

Minister of Transportation Steve Del Duca never directly answered Natyshak's question.

"To date, our government has invested nearly $50 million to widen the 13 km of the highway from the City of Windsor to the Town of Essex. The work to widen the remaining two-lane section of Highway 3 between Leamington and Windsor is listed as part of our southern highways program under planning for the future," Del Duca said in response.

Natyshak's motion, which had the support of members of the PC Part, lost in a vote, 31-28.

Chatham-Kent-Essex PC MPP Rick Nicholls said he was shocked when Liberals voted against expanding the highway.

He said Crozier, for whom the road is now named after, would have been happy "to see this promise fulfilled."

"This motion brought forward is, in fact, a safety issue that needs to be addressed before there are more deaths on that stretch of highway," said Nicholls who is also the PC Critic for Community Safety and Correctional Services.

"Many of my constituents prefer to take the back roads even though it adds to their travel time," Nicholls said. "That's how dangerous Highway 3 is at the moment."