Aren't there any proponents of 413 on this site?
Well I used to support 413, but a few things I saw that changed my opinion were;
1. The plan that the province put out was as land hungry as they could have made it. The interchanges were massive, the ROW was super wide, and they chose a Parco entry and exit for the highway. This is the most fertile land in ontario, and has very environmentally sensitive areas that the province made ZERO attempt to protect. If they created a design that used the least amount of land for a highway as possible then it would be more supportive.
2. The highway isn't really useful on a network perspective. It goes from highway 401/407 to 400 in north Vaughn. Its not a north/south highway or east/ west highway. Wanna go from 401 / 407 to 404 bypassing the 401. Nope you push traffic onto the 400 and force them to use the Bradford bypass which is further north most likely requiring you to head back south. Want to head east to kitchener bypassing 401, nope you'll be sent back south to 401 and then head back north. It is only useful for local traffic. The only market it severs is southeast to Northern Ontario.
3. The 407 is already there, with a full east route from 407/401 to 115 Peterborough. A full bypass of the busiest stretch of the 401 with connections to every north south highway in the GTA. Its an actual bypass that is much more useful to the network, and runs near large logistic centers. Yes its tolled, but that 3 billion can be used to subsidize trucks, cancel the deal with ETR, or used for other important highway projects. 3 billion can by a lot of highway kms.
4. It encourages subdivision sprawl. Yep we are still building the most unsustainable development humans created. No attempt has been made to increase suburban sustainability such as following the missing middle (montreal model), or streetcar suburban model (old toronto with buses not streetcars). Google or youtube Strong Towns. Some interesting findings. So if the province put in protections for the whitebelt (farm land) that would be as strong as for the green belt, and Ford stopped the MZO nonsense, then I would feel more comfortable supporting it.
Unfortunately this is not the case, and the MTO is still stuck in the thinking of "this is the way it has always been done". The province is continuing spawling like crazy making our American friends jealous.
So its not ideological, i know highways are needed and support them but they need to be well placed and thought out.