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Ontario Premier Doug Ford is as soon as once more musing about perhaps shopping for again Freeway 407 — an thought he has gone forwards and backwards on for months — saying he received’t rule out the potential buy.
On Wednesday, at an unrelated occasion, Ford was requested if he was nonetheless contemplating shopping for out the toll freeway, which Ontario offered to a non-public operator within the Nineties.
The premier stated the province had had conversations in regards to the thought, however didn’t say if it was beneath any form of significant consideration.
“The general public service form of goes forwards and backwards, the Ministry of Transportation, however you already know, with out throwing any numbers, we must always by no means have offered the 407,” Ford stated.
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“They’re going to be at capability in 10 years, and I’d by no means rule out buying it, however we additionally need to construct capability.”
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Ford stated it could price “tens of billions of {dollars}” to take the freeway again into public possession.
The feedback got here the day after the premier confirmed Ontario would take away tolls from the publicly owned portion of Freeway 407 as a part of Thursday’s funds.
These modifications solely affect a small part of the freeway, which runs throughout the Better Toronto Space and is privately owned and tolled for many of its route.
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Authorities critics have recommended the province ought to think about shopping for the route as a substitute of constructing Freeway 413 between Milton and Vaughan or tunnelling a brand new expressway beneath Freeway 401.
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Ford has mused in regards to the thought however usually appeared to lean towards it.
At one level, he stated the federal government ought to sit down with executives at Freeway 407, and his transportation ministry stated it was one thing being mentioned, earlier than the premier appeared to chill on the thought throughout the election.
“We want extra capability — that’s what we’d like — that (shopping for the 407) doesn’t add extra capability,” he stated in February.
Regardless of months of musing in regards to the potential to purchase again the route, the overwhelming majority of references to Freeway 407 have come from the premier and never the Ministry of Transportation.
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The federal government has introduced no formal talks to purchase the freeway.
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