Ontario transport minister makes announcement after hinting bike lane legislation is coming
CBC
Ontario's minister of transportation is set to make an announcement Tuesday in Toronto, just days after suggesting the province would soon introduce legislation to limit where bike lanes can be built.
Prabmeet Sarkaria is scheduled to speak with reporters at 9:30 a.m. in Etobicoke. You can watch the news conference live in the player above.
"Our province is stuck in traffic and bike lanes aren't helping," Sarkaria said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday.
"In the coming days our government will unveil our plan to work with our municipal partners to ensure bike lanes are introduced in a way that reflects the needs of the entire community," the post continued.
Last month, CBC News obtained internal government draft documents that included the case for a legislative measure to prohibit bike lanes when lanes for motor vehicles are removed as a result.
At the time, Sarkaria declined to confirm whether such a measure would be forthcoming.
But in public appearances since, both Sarkaria and Ford have repeatedly said that bike lanes are adding to gridlock, hurting local businesses and making it harder for emergency services to get around. Neither have provided any direct evidence for those claims.
The pair have also said bike lanes should be limited to side streets.
Sarkaria's news conference on Tuesday will be held at a restaurant on Bloor Street West. The busy thoroughfare has become a flash point for the debate about bike lanes in the city, with residents and business owners split over protected lanes that were recently installed.
Last week, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow publicly asked Ford to consider delaying legislation targeted at bike lanes as the city works to address the "irritants" some in the area have flagged with the new Etobicoke lanes.
The looming legislation is part of a larger push by the Ford government to tackle traffic congestion in the province, particularly in the Greater Toronto Area.
Another possibility includes digging the world's longest road tunnel beneath Highway 401 in the region for both vehicles and public transit.
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.
The Liberal government and the NDP have agreed to introduce a two-month GST vacation on certain items before the holiday season, Radio-Canada has learned.
Veterinarians are warning Londoners to make sure their dogs are vaccinated and keeping clean after a deadly virus outbreak was declared in London this week.
Registered nurses rallied in St. John's Wednesday as part of a week-long convention, again calling on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to create permanent solutions to staff shortages and workplace violence.