Ontario is refusing to release already completed work on the viability of Premier Doug Ford’s Highway 401 tunnel vision after signing a $9.1 million agreement for a Canadian company to re-study the plan.
As part of its Fall Economic Statement, the province confirmed it had awarded a contract to WSP Canada Inc. to consider how to build an expressway beneath Ontario’s busiest artery — and whether it is possible at all.
The fresh study comes four years after secret internal work on the same plan was paused. That work was prompted when private companies sent the idea to the government, catching the imagination of the premier.
Based on snippets of heavily redacted communications between civil servants, Global News previously reported studying the idea had uncovered “several financial and construction challenges and risks to the project.”
Those included, “Risks to public safety from impacts of the tunnel to Highway 401 such as potential for roadway collapse, as well as availability of labour, market capacity/interest, and securing financing).”
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Now, privacy officials with the Ministry of Transportation have denied a request through freedom of information to release any part of the report.
In a letter, the government refused to share even a redacted version of the report, claiming it would mean publishing cabinet records, advice to government and third-party data, as well as posing a risk to the province’s economy.
After Global News first reported the risk of collapse, Premier Ford said the internal studies would have no bearing on his renewed push to build the tunnel.
“That’s old — let’s get some proper people in there to do a full-fledged study,” he said on Aug. 6. “It can be built, we know it can be built, and we’ll get that done too.”
Despite the premier acknowledging the studies won’t relate to his plans going forward and dismissing them, the Ministry of Transportation said it would not overrule privacy officials, waive its privacy claims and make the study public.
“Decisions regarding the release of records for FOI requests are made in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act,” they wrote.
“FOI requests are processed by non-partisan public servants.”
There are no rules that stop the government from releasing information to the public, even if privacy officials believe transparency laws don’t compel them to.
Last year, for example, the premier’s office overruled civil servants who denied the release of its ServiceOntario expansion business case and shared a lightly redacted version with Global News.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the Highway 401 tunnel studies should be made public.
“The lack of transparency here is staggering,” she said in a statement sent to Global News.
“We just learned that they committed close to $10 million to study their multi-billion dollar fantasy tunnel once again, so why can’t they release the existing study? What are they hiding? If the Premier wants to spend hundreds of billions of tax dollars on this vanity project, he needs to release the study.”
Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser said the completed work should be released before any more is paid for.
“The government is spending $9.1 million just to humour the premier, and it isn’t worth it,” he said.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
