Ontario to speed up environmental assessments, property acquisitions for Highway 413 [Video]

Ontario plans to speed up the building of highways by facilitating construction 24 hours a day, accelerating property acquisitions, and creating a faster environmental assessment process.

Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria announced Thursday that the proposed changes would be part of the first bill tabled by the government when the legislature returns Monday from its summer break.

“These common sense changes will help us build these projects significantly faster, saving drivers and families up to five hours every week,” he said.

The measures will be part of the same bill that will also include forcing municipalities to ask the province for permission to install bike lanes, if they will remove a lane for vehicle traffic, which the government is also positioning as a way to ease gridlock for drivers.

“Every year, gridlock costs Ontario’s economy $11 billion in lost productivity,” Sarkaria said Thursday. “This is money that could be invested in …