Cottage owners may have a new option for bypassing Highway 401 traffic on their cottage commutes.
During a May 13 press conference in Pickering, Ont., Premier Doug Ford announced that he would be removing tolls from the provincially owned section of Highway 407.
The announcement came as part of the Ontario government’s 2025 budget, which also included a permanent cut to the gas and fuel tax rate, keeping the provincial rates of tax at nine cents per litre.
“I know that families and business owners are worried about rising costs, especially as U.S. tariffs threaten to raise the price of everyday essentials,” said Ford. “That’s why we’re cutting the gas tax permanently and taking tolls off Highway 407 East.”
If the legislation is passed, the Ontario-owned section of Highway 407, which runs between Brock Road in Pickering and Highway 35/115 in Clarington, will be toll-free starting June 1. Highway 407 is the only provincially owned tolled highway in Ontario since the government removed tolls from Highways 412 and 418 in 2022. This year, the government also passed legislation banning any new tolls on provincially owned roads.
“There will never be tolls as long as we’re in government and I’m Premier in the province of Ontario,” said Ford.
He added that with current levels of traffic, especially around Toronto, his government plans to build more infrastructure to alleviate congestion. One proposal Ford floated back in the fall of 2024 was to build a tunnel for vehicles underneath Highway 401 that stretched between Mississauga and Scarborough.
“All 400 series highways will be maxed out in the next 10 years. We know the 401’s maxed out,” said Ford. “I drive by there at midnight. I don’t know where everyone’s going. It’s absolutely jammed at midnight. So, we’re going to move forward with the tunnel.”
The government is currently conducting a feasibility study for the 401-tunnel project.
Despite the government’s pushback to tolls, not all of Highway 407 will be toll-free. The 108-kilometre stretch between the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) in Burlington and Brock Road in Pickering is operated by a private company known as 407 International, made up of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Cintra Global S.E., and AtkinsRéalis Canada Inc. The company paid the Ontario government $3.1 billion in 1999 for a 99-year lease.
This portion of Highway 407 will continue to be tolled with rates dependent on type of vehicle and distance travelled.
Last year, the company reported that more than 2.6 billion vehicles used the privately owned section of Highway 407, earning the company $1.7 billion in revenue.
In a 2021 report published by Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation, the government forecasted that tolls on the provincially owned section of Highway 407 would generate $77 million in revenue for the province between 2025 and 2026.
But by removing tolls on the provincially owned section of Highway 407, Ford estimates that it will save daily commuters $7,200 annually.
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