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Construction on Highway 413 is set to begin next year in the Greater Toronto Area, but environmental groups say they’re hoping a small fish will hamper the province’s construction plans.
The redside minnow, which belongs to the family of minnows, is listed as endangered in Ontario. The province says the fish, which is about 12 centimetres long and has red and yellow stripes, is at risk of “imminent extinction or extinction”.
Environmental groups say the fish’s habitat roughly overlaps with the route of the new highway, which will run through the northern and western parts of the Greater Toronto Area and connect the Peel, York and Halton regions.
According to the province, the fish are found in several tributaries of Lake Huron, streams that flow into western Lake Ontario, the Holland River that flows into Lake Simcoe and the Irving River in the Grand River system that flows into Lake Erie.
The fish has been federally protected since 2017, when it was listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act, according to the federal government. But this summer, a new Recovery Strategy and Action Plan went into effect to increase protections for habitat deemed critical to the fish’s survival.
An endangered fish called the redside dace could threaten Ontario’s Highway 413 project, which was originally scheduled to start construction next year. As CBC’s Lorenda Reddekopp explains, the federal government has taken the next step to protect the species.
The federal government has until the end of January to issue a formal protection order for redside dace habitat, Rachel Jones, a spokeswoman for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said in an email Friday.
“While the critical habitat identified in the Recovery Strategy and Action Plan is already protected under Ontario’s Species at Risk Act (ESA), further federal protections for these habitats will come into effect once a ministerial order is published in the Canada Gazette II, which is expected to be within 180 days of the release of the final plan,” Jones said in an email.
Fish is not The only animal considered to be at risk If the highway is built, consultants to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation Identified Chorus frogs along the proposed highway are listed as Under threat On Canada’s official register of endangered species.
Tony Morris, director of conservation policy and campaigns at environmental charity The Nature Conservancy of Ontario, said the federal government has a legal obligation to take steps to protect fish through legislation.
“The restoration strategy identifies those critical habitat streams in Ontario. It’s going to change the whole landscape,” he said.
Morris said people should be concerned about any species at risk because it represents the “canary in the coal mine.”
“When species like redside minnows disappear from an ecosystem, it means other aspects of the aquatic environment and surrounding environment are also becoming unhealthy, which can affect other species that rely on them for food,” Morris said.
“Whenever you lose a particular species, you see a ripple effect on the ecosystem. The presence of red dace, and the fact that they are still in the Greater Toronto Area, means a relatively healthy environment, which is what we all want.”
Lawyer calls formal protection order an ‘encouraging sign’
Phil Pothen, a lawyer and program manager for the Ontario Environment Protection Group, told CBC News: Metropolitan Morning Post The formal federal protection order that is expected to be issued this week gives him hope and is an “encouraging sign” that the project can be stopped.
“We are optimistic that this recognition, this final implementation of overdue habitat protections, actually signals that the federal government intends to pump the brakes on Highway 413,” Posen said.
Posen said the fish’s habitat overlaps with the proposed highway’s route, and the federal strategy specifically mentions paving nearby land and altering river flows as possible damage to the fish’s habitat.
He said he believes a federal environmental impact assessment is still necessary.
Last year, the provincial and federal governments signed a memorandum of understanding for the highway, which gave the federal government a reprieve from an environmental impact assessment. But the agreement states the Species at Risk Act still applies.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on August 16 that the province will start construction of Highway 413 next year.
Officials say traffic jams mean freeways are needed
Dakota Brasier, press secretary for Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, said the province is taking steps to reduce the environmental impact of highways.
“Ontario’s environmental assessment is one of the most rigorous processes ever undertaken. As we continue to work with experts in the field, the federal government and other regulators, we will further develop improvements and mitigation strategies to minimize the project’s impacts on species at risk,” said Brasier.
Brasier said a joint working group was formed after the signing of the memorandum of understanding and has met three times so far. The working group includes representatives from both levels of government and will “help identify and recommend appropriate measures to avoid or minimize environmental impacts within federal jurisdiction.”
Brazier added that the highway is necessary.
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“Our province is in the midst of unprecedented growth, and with traffic congestion costing our economy up to $11 billion each year, we need infrastructure to keep up. Building the roads, bridges and highways that drivers rely on has never been more important,” said Brasier.
On a webpage about the species, the province says: “Habitat loss and degradation from urban and agricultural development are the greatest threats to redside minnows.”
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