Sterling says tolling trucks would drive QEW traffic to mid-peninsula highway

TORONTO (Feb. 4, 2003) — Ontario Minister of Transportation Norm Sterling suggested placing tolls on the Queen Elizabeth Way as an incentive for trucks to use an alternate route planned for the Niagara Peninsula.

The QEW is heavily travelled by trucks moving goods between Southern Ontario and the United States. It feeds access routes to four border crossings, including Fort Erie, Ont., one of Canada’s busiest.

“We want to get trucks off of the QEW as it now stands and get them onto the new mid-peninsula corridor when it is built and in order to do that we may, in fact, consider things like tolling trucks on the QEW in order to force them up on this new highway,” Sterling told reporters yesterday.

The 130-kilometre highway would run from Burlington to the United States border and cost $1.2 billion to build. MTO officials have said the province is considering charging tolls to pay for construction and maintenance on the new route.

The proposed highway faces stiff opposition from environmentalists who argue that it would be detrimental to the ecosystem of the Niagara Escarpment and exacerbate urban sprawl.

A public presentations will be held today at 6:30 p.m, Holiday Inn Burlington Halton Hall, 3063 South Service Road., in Burlington. Others are scheduled for tomorrow at 6:30 p.m., Royal Canadian Legion Branch 383, Morningstar Ave., in Welland, and Thursday, 6:30 p.m., Rockton World’s Fairground, 812 Old Highway 8, in Rockton.