The Redside Dace is a very small fish found in Ontario, but if it were to disappear, it could mean big trouble for the environment.
And it is being imperilled by the construction of 52-kilometre Highway 413 north of Toronto, along with 28 other endangered species at risk.
Mike Marcolongo, associate director of Environmental Defence Canada, said the Redside Dace is a key indicator of the health of an ecosystem.
The fish is sensitive to changes in its habitat, and construction would most likely severely affect them. "Urban development is considered to be the most significant threat acting upon Redside Dace populations in Ontario," a federal government report said. There are only six stable population sites remaining for the fish in Southern Ontario.
Marcolongo said these minnows depend on clean water, but as the bottoms and middles of watersheds have been paved over, the pollution gets worse. From de-icing the highway to tire and vehicle exhaust contaminants, it creates a “toxic soup” that makes its way into streams and creeks, Marcolongo said.
The highway, now under construction, is planned to cut through more than 200 wetlands, in excess of 80 waterways, and the Ontario Greenbelt, Marcolongo said. An Ontario press release stated 413 will link Highways 410 and 427 and extend from Highway 400 to 401/407.
According to Environmental Defence Canada, the development is estimated to cost anywhere from $6 billion to $18 billion.
MPP Mike Schriener said he doesn’t think the government “want the people of Ontario to know” how much the highway will cost.
The “destruction” of “the farmland that feeds us” was reason enough to oppose the highway, he said.
Marcolongo said this money should instead be put into public transit. He said $18 billion would be enough to build light rail transit between Toronto and Sudbury.
“That’s the best way to move people effectively,” Marcolongo said.
The highway could save drivers up to 30 minutes, according to the 413 website, but the EDC says drivers would save less than 30 seconds.
Regarding gridlock, Schriener said building a new highway would not be a solution.
“Especially one that’s going to be so destructive to sensitive ecosystems, farmland, endangered species and waterways,” Schriener said.
He said flooding would also get worse if the 413 were completed.
“We had floods in the GTA that cost $1.3 billion an hour in damages. And that’s only going to get worse if the premier continues to pave over the land that soaks up all that excess water,” he said.
Marcolongo said the Greenbelt fight is what motivated him to leave his previous career as a policymaker in government.
“When Doug Ford decided to carve the Greenbelt, it was a moment in time where it was ... do we just stand by, or do we push back on that proposal?” he said.
There was also the concern of transparency, Marcolongo said.
“The former government (was) elected in early June, and the carve-outs were announced in October,” he said.
Marcolongo said this should have taken a larger amount of time in government if the move was done with “transparency, with rigour and due course.”
After a leave of absence to work as an activist, Marcolongo said he always knew where he could make the largest difference.
“Unfortunately ... it’s not in government,” he said.
His environmental career, however, didn't begin when he started working with Environmental Defence Canada.
“My first summer job was when the Environmental Bill of Rights had just been passed by the NDP government,” in 1993, he said. “It was working through the Ontario Environmental Network to educate Ontarians on the powers of that legislation.”
Marcolongo said they’ve seen unfortunate changes in the province while with Environmental Defence Canada.
"The Species at Risk legislation here in Ontario used to be the gold standard for across the country,” he said, and they’ve seen “significant rollbacks” of protections for at-risk species.
Marcolongo said the environment isn’t high on the government’s list of priorities.
He said the 413 is “a very political highway” and was “pushed forward” as one.
"There's hundreds of thousands of people stuck in their cars, backed up from here to Timbuktu, and you're worried about a grasshopper jumping across a highway," Ford said in a 2024 media conference. “We need to start building, and we're going to start building.”
To this, Marcolongo said the concern is much deeper.
“We’re not talking about grasshoppers," he said. "We’re talking about significant species at risk that have both provincial and national importance.”
Schriener said he will continue pushing Ford on the issue “every single day that [he has] the opportunity to and hopes Ford will “backtrack on this risky and irresponsible Highway 413 scheme.”
Instead, if able, Schreiner said he would redirect some of the vague billion-dollar estimate to “build out regional transit in the area,” which would be more responsible, unlike the 413.
Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, the minister of transportation, did not respond to requests for comment.
Sarkaria’s press secretary and director of media relations, Dakota Brasier, also did not respond to a request for comment.
