Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024

What happened · Nov 10, 2025

The province launched a $10-million Pothole Prevention and Repair Program on November 10, 2025. It is open only to municipalities of 10,000 people or fewer, with up to $38,000 each.

The platform gave no dollar figure and no eligibility rules. The program that launched on November 10, 2025 is called the Pothole Prevention and Repair Program and is worth $10 million. Only single- and lower-tier municipalities with 10,000 people or fewer can apply. The province says 263 of Ontario's 444 municipalities qualify. Each can get up to $38,000 for 2025–26. Applications closed December 12, 2025. Toronto, Ottawa, Mississauga, Hamilton and every other larger city are excluded, which includes the GTHA municipalities where the platform's gridlock section focused. The province's release says Bill 212, the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024, already committed the government to consult municipalities on the program.

What happened · Sep 1, 2026

Removal has started on one stretch of Bloor Street West. Yonge and University are still waiting on a design contract, and no replacement bike lanes on secondary roads have been announced.

The removal power and the provincial veto over new bike lanes that take away a car lane were already law before the campaign. Bill 212, the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024, received Royal Assent on November 25, 2024. The 2025 budget bill (Bill 24, Royal Assent June 5, 2025) changed the wording from 'removal' to 'reconfiguration' while a court challenge was under way. In July 2025 an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled the removals unconstitutional. On August 14, 2026 the Court of Appeal for Ontario overturned that ruling, which cleared the province to act on about 19 km of protected lanes. In December 2025 the province had restored a car lane on a 600-metre stretch of Bloor West (Resurrection Road to Clissold Road) and kept the bike lane there. On September 1, 2026 it issued a request for proposals for design options to restore car lanes on Bloor, Yonge, University, Queen's Park, Queen's Park Crescent and Avenue Road. It also said it was 'immediately beginning' to restore car lanes on Bloor Street West east of Clissold Road. Cycle Toronto said on September 9 that the RFP closes in December and the remaining work is set to start in spring 2027. No provincial plan to rebuild these lanes on secondary roads has been announced. The transportation minister has only said that streets like King and College would be better alternatives.

What happened · Nov 25, 2024

Within seven months the government passed Bill 212, whose Schedule 3 (Highway 413 Act, 2024) exempts Highway 413 and its early works from the Environmental Assessment Act.

On April 15, 2024, a joint Canada-Ontario release announcing that the federal impact-assessment designation would be set aside said the project 'is subject to Ontario's Environmental Assessment Act', and the province repeated this on April 30, 2024. On October 21, 2024, Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria introduced Bill 212, the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act, 2024. Its Schedule 3, the Highway 413 Act, 2024, exempts the highway, its extensions and its early works from the Environmental Assessment Act. It also disapplies Part II of the Environmental Bill of Rights to permits for the project and replaces the EA with a ministry-run environmental impact assessment report. The bill received royal assent on November 25, 2024; the draft report was open for comment from December 1, 2025 to January 6, 2026, and the final report was published on March 12, 2026.