Doug Ford’s Highway 401 tunnel idea was shelved in 2021 by his own government

For the past year—at campaign rallies, festivals, barbecues and many other glad-handing exhibitions—Ontario Premier Doug Ford has made it clear that he wants to build a tunnel underneath the 401 to help ease congestion. It turns out that his government had already looked into the idea as early as 2021 and decided against it.

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According to reports from CBC and Global News, a Freedom of Information request has revealed that the Ford Tories conducted an unpublicized planning study on the potential tunnel in 2021. The project was then shelved late that year for an undisclosed reason.

The secret study seems to have been spurred by unsolicited pitches from developers between 2019 and 2021. Those proposals included three tunnel concepts: one double-decker with five lanes on each level and two featuring elevated roads. The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, along with an outside engineering consultant, considered the ideas, but in the end, no more work was done.

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Until now, that is. A feasibility study, expected to be complete in 2027, is currently underway—even as the tunnel concept has received truckloads of criticism from engineers, urbanists, environmentalists, transit advocates and residents living near the highway. That’s partly due to its expected price tag of up to $100 billion, combined with skepticism of whether a tunnel would actually do anything to help ease gridlock.

Ford made his dream of a 401 tunnel public in 2024, proposing one that runs 50 kilometres from Mississauga to Scarborough—which would make it the longest underground tunnel ever built.