Cost of congestion is enormous, including to the homebuilding sector

By Michael Giles

June 5, 2026

Having spent over 30 years in government at all levels in this country, one of my enduring themes has been the need to do things differently.  For too long, Canadian governments have had the luxury of being mediocre in terms of boldness of policy, efficiency of operation and with respect to implementation of initiatives. That time has come and gone.

While my main focus has been with respect to housing policy, in other ways we still do things that are imprudent, unnecessary and illogical. Each area where ill-advised protocols manifest themselves is a further demonstration that we need to do things differently.

One major source of irritation, and a costly one at that, is the impact of congestion. Regular traffic gridlock contributes to enormous losses economically and impacts rise like a Medusa entering all sorts of sectors including, by the way, simple quality of life.

Aside from the infrastructural congestion, one other contributor has increasingly raised its ugly head with enormous impacts, albeit acute in nature. The character of the impactful events often presents sensitivity concerns in terms of dialogue, but it is one worthy of attention. I refer to the impacts of motor vehicle collisions and the seemingly endless investigations that accompany them.

Let’s be clear and unambiguous; accidents that cause injury or are fatal are enormously sad and leave lifelong impacts on those affected and their families and communities. These losses and terrible personal impacts are tragic and we cannot negate them. 

However, how these situations are managed must be a subject of conversation and consideration. 

Roadways, highways and thoroughfares of all kinds are the lifeblood of a city. This is particularly true in the morning and afternoon rush hours, though in places like Toronto and Montreal it can seem high traffic time is all day long. 

Over the past few weeks, watching the morning news, there were seemingly endless reports about traffic accidents which are then followed by announcements that investigations are going to result in road closures, often many hours in length. 

A recent example was a tragic motorcycle accident that closed a main north/south roadway in Toronto (Bayview Avenue) for almost 12 hours. The reason was to conduct an investigation.  Keep in mind, this thoroughfare is among the busiest in the city, particularly in the mornings and afternoons. The tragic accident took place around midnight, and investigators had apparently hardly commenced their work by the morning rush hour.

The closure of this road, and many like it, which happens repeatedly, has enormous and wide-ranging impacts. Commuters find themselves stuck in massive traffic jams on alternate routes, students and workers are confined to buses on surface routes, multiple secondary accidents occur, construction and other delivery trucks encounter massive delays in delivering their products and supplies, emergency vehicles are required to find their way through congested roads, exhaust emissions explode to higher levels than necessary as vehicles are trapped in backlogs and, less apparent but just as important, people are stressed, annoyed and frustrated.

We live in a technological age. There is no reason we can’t end traditional, time-consuming measuring methods and outdated practices like chalk markings and other protocols. As with other locales, we could use small drones and three-dimensional laser scanners. Investigators could complete their work with massively reduced timelines and less road closures.

We’re not re-inventing the wheel, many jurisdictions across the world have embraced quick clearance or open-road policies. In Florida, they have an “Open Roads Policy,” for example, that requires accidents to be cleared in 90 minutes. 

Embracing new technology and methods can attain the same required results, just in dramatically reduced timelines. The cost of congestion is enormous, including to the homebuilding sector. Closing roads to investigate accidents may be necessary but not for hours on end as the rest of the city grinds to a halt.