A proposed highway to connect the Niagara region with the Ontario provincial capital of Toronto is on a fast track, according to Ontario
Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield.
Cansfield met with local politicians from both areas this week to say
the highway proposal is still a decade or more from reality, but that the government
was moving ahead with environmental studies, according to the St. Catherines Standard.
The corridor would include Toronto, Hamilton and other trucking
centers, and serve the border region at Buffalo, NY.
The unnamed highway was one of three Canadian road proposals announced
this week.
In the province of Alberta, the federal government will spend $150
million toward a $320 million twinning of Highway 63.
Highway 63 links Edmonton and Fort McMurray, a busy route to the
booming oil-sands industry.
Oil companies are extracting oil from the sands, and Highway 63 cannot
handle the increased traffic, according to the Alberta government, which is
coughing up the remaining $170 million.
A planned highway extension in the French-speaking province of Quebec has the attention of the trucking world because it would link a proposed
trade route from Montreal to the New England states.
Environment Canada has initiated an environmental assessment for an
extension of Highway 35 between Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Philipsburg, Quebec, a vital link in the chain.
Several government ministries are studying the proposal, and public
hearings have not yet been scheduled.
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