Waterloo councillors say they will keep fighting for bike lanes after provincial bill passes

Waterloo region councillors will keep fighting for bike lanes after the provincial government passed “Bill 212, Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act.”

The legislation states “municipalities are required, in certain circumstances, to obtain the Minister’s approval before constructing bicycle lanes or to provide the Minister with information relating to existing bicycle lanes.”

The Ford government’s controversial bike lane bill passed by a vote of 66-27 on Monday.

According to the bill, some bike lanes in Toronto will be removed and municipalities, including Waterloo Region, may need to ask permission to put in new bike lanes

Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe said that she thinks bike lanes should not be the provincial government’s jurisdiction.

“Bike lanes and things like city roads and regional roads are clearly local municipality's responsibility,” said McCabe. “That type of jurisdictional overreach is always a challenge when you see that.”

Ontario’s Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria claimed bike lanes do not help the majority of the population in the long run.

"Ripping up the busiest roads in Toronto, not only in Toronto in Ontario, North America - ripping up 50 per cent of the lanes and accommodating a very small percentage of people makes absolutely no sense," Sarkaria said at Queen’s Park on Monday.

McCabe said research done by Waterloo staff disagrees with the Minister’s assessment.

“[Research] showed clearly that any roadway where a bike lane or additional pedestrian infrastructure has been added [saw] a 42 per cent reduction in collisions,” said McCabe. “Collisions that involve pedestrians, collisions that involve cyclists, collisions that involve people with mobility devices and certainly people in vehicles. This decision flies in the face of what we can see on the ground is actually addressing safety issues that we have in our cities.”

Kitchener Centre Green Party MPP Aislin Clancy was one of the 27 councillors who voted no to the bill. She said the issue of gridlock Ford sees in Toronto is not the case in Kitchener-Waterloo.

“I'm not hearing from anyone at the door that that's their priority. I hear [about] cost of housing, cost of food, public health care and education, childcare spaces,” Clancy said. “Those are the things that really matter to people. They're not complaining about gridlock”

McCabe said the region will go forward with designing the Waterloo bike lanes they had planned for Erb Street and Bridgeport Road prior to the bill’s passing.

She said with the research they have, she’s confident the province will approve the installations.