News Roads & Paving
Poll shows public support of road infrastructure expansion in Ontario

TORONTO – The Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario (RCCAO) and Ontario Road Builders’ Association (ORBA) commissioned a public poll in response to federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s recent comments suggesting the halting of new road infrastructure, with results showing the majority of Ontarians to be in support of expanding the province’s roads.

On Feb. 12, Guilbeault said the existing road infrastructure “is perfectly adequate to respond to the needs we have,” with his statements causing controversy across the country’s roadbuilding and infrastructure construction sectors.

RCCAO and ORBA conducted the poll from Feb. 28 to March 1, receiving 1,959 respondents. Contrary to Guilbeault’s statements, the results showed strong support from Ontarians in building critical road infrastructure across the province; with two to one of respondents disagreeing with his comments.

“We know that already the highway network across Ontario is near or at capacity and then couple that with the population growth that we are experiencing and are projected to experience, it was just a very concerning comment,” said RCCAO executive director Nadia Todorova. “We want to get a sense of what do Ontarians feel about this statement.”

Further results showed specific support for a number of road projects across the province. Two to one of respondents support Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, while four to one of respondents support for the Ring of Fire development project.

Two to one of respondents also believe the statements that “the government needs to build or expand more roads” and that “the government needs to build or expand more roads across the province.”

“Today’s results show everyday people understand the critical need for these generational transportation infrastructure projects,” said Walid Abou-Hamde, CEO of ORBA, in a statement. “The roadbuilding industry also employs more than 56,000 men and women in Ontario, that is tens of thousands of good paying jobs supporting workers and their families across the province.”