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The federal government advised Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives to reroute their signature Highway 413 project to protect endangered species, internal documents reveal. 

The recommendation was made by Environment and Climate Change Canada officials in a June 2024 presentation given to federal and provincial bureaucrats as part of a joint working group for Highway 413. The Narwhal obtained copies from both federal and provincial governments through federal access to information rules and provincial freedom of information legislation. 

If built, Highway 413 would connect Toronto’s north and western suburbs, running though Ontario’s protected Greenbelt and swaths of endangered species habitat along the way. It was a major tenet of Premier Doug Ford’s 2022 election campaign, and continues to play a prominent role in his party’s current bid for re-election that will see voters headed to the polls Feb. 27. But the federal government has also had some oversight of the highway since 2021. 

That year, the federal government highlighted concerns about how the highway would affect protected species at risk of extinction and said it would review the project, a process known as an impact assessment. But the federal government dropped the assessment last year amid a court challenge from Ontario, saying the two levels of government would instead try to iron out their differences in the voluntary working group. The federal government declined a request to restart the impact assessment late last year, citing the working group as one reason a full review would no longer be needed.

The internal document obtained by The Narwhal indicates the two governments are still clashing about the project even as Ontario enters a provincial election campaign — and a federal election likely isn’t far behind.

In the presentation, Environment and Climate Change Canada said its experts were “not aware of a plan” from Ontario that would “sufficiently” lessen impacts to species at risk. For some species along the route, like the western chorus frog — which the federal government classifies as threatened but is not protected under Ontario law — and a dragonfly called a rapids clubtail, it “may be very challenging or impossible to offset” habitat that’s set to be destroyed by the highway, the experts noted. 

Highway 413 would run across Ontario’s largest remaining patch of habitat vital to the western chorus frog’s survival in the province, destroying an area equivalent to about 30 soccer fields. The federal government warned Ontario in 2023 that minor shifts in the highway’s route would be unlikely to help, as the frog can be impacted by highways up to 2.4 kilometres away. 

Avoiding harm in the first place “will be key,” the presentation said. The federal department recommended Ontario move sections of the highway that pass through at-risk species habitat, outlining specific concerns about the portion of Highway 413 that would pass over the Humber River, which empties into Lake Ontario in Toronto’s west end. 

Another slide in the presentation shows Environment and Climate Change Canada warned Ontario that federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault “must recommend” an emergency order under the Canadian government’s Species At Risk Act “if he is of the opinion that the species faces imminent threats to its survival or recovery.” 

These emergency orders are rarely used, but allow the federal government to impose a stricter set of rules to protect at-risk species on land where the province normally has jurisdiction — Guilbeault issued one in 2021 to conserve western chorus frog habitat in a Montreal suburb. If the federal government were to issue an emergency order for species living along the Highway 413 route, it could substantially delay construction, which the Ford government has said could begin as soon as this year.

The federal government redacted the line about the possibility of an emergency order in the version of the slide deck it released, but it was left in the copy The Narwhal obtained from Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation.

Environment and Climate Change Canada “welcomes the opportunity to review and collaborate with Ontario on mitigation plans to reduce this risk,” the slide said. 

The documents don’t show how the province responded to the federal government’s overtures, and it’s not clear whether Ontario’s plans have changed since last June. Ontario’s Transportation Ministry didn’t answer questions about the presentation and whether it changed the route in response. 

Guilbeault’s office redirected questions to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada. In a statement, the agency said discussions with Ontario about Highway 413 are ongoing. The agency did not directly answer questions about whether Ontario has heeded the federal government’s suggestions, or if Guilbeault is willing to pursue an emergency order if the two sides can’t agree.

Neither Ontario nor the federal government have given any public sign that the route has been changed, though Ontario announced in December it had finished its initial design for 90 per cent of Highway 413, including all bridges and crossings. Last fall, Ontario also passed Bill 212, which weakened environmental oversight of Highway 413.

The presentation also hinted at another possible roadblock for the highway: under a slide labelled “Policy and Legal Risks,” Environment and Climate Change Canada noted two First Nations — Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and Six Nations of the Grand River — have raised concerns about how Highway 413 could impact Treaty Rights. Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation in particular is concerned its members are losing space for harvesting and ceremonies as projects like the 413 bring more urbanization to their territory, the slide noted. 

Mark LaForme, the executive director of intergovernmental affairs for Mississaugas of the Credit, declined to comment on the document but said he’s disappointed the First Nation wasn’t included in the working group. Highway 413 will directly cross the nation’s territory, and Mississaugas of the Credit have significant concerns about its environmental impacts — especially on waterways.

Highway 413 is expected to cross 95 rivers, creeks and streams, and runoff from roads can drive pollution into watersheds. Harm to those waterways could impact the First Nation’s rights to use the water for sustenance fishing and boating, among other things, LaForme said.

“We believe this will have significant impacts on our rights,” he said. “The water is very important to us.”

But when the nation brings up those concerns, its representatives are often speaking to bureaucrats who aren’t decision-makers, while Canada and Ontario talk behind closed doors.

“We were just excluded from that process completely, so we weren’t aware of the working group that Canada and Ontario set up to deal with this,” LaForme said. “Why were we not a part of that group?”

For years, the federal government has warned Ontario that it’s falling short on its consultations with First Nations. LaForme said Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation has been “quite forthcoming” with consultations recently and seems to be taking the process more seriously, though there’s no sign the province intends to change its plans for the 413.

“Doug Ford’s going to build this damn highway, that’s all there is to it,” LaForme said.

Six Nations of the Grand River did not answer an interview request. 

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