About Us

We are a group of East Gwillimbury residents that came together in 1993 to fight the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s (MTO) proposed new Bradford Bypass controlled access highway.  We made extensive use of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to obtain as much information as we could about why and how we were suddenly being confronted with a proposed 4 lane controlled access highway in our neighbourhood.

Over time, our membership grew to over 300 local residents, many of whom attended a special meeting we hosted at the River Drive Park Community Centre. MTO’s consultants also attended and participated. 

We believe our aggressive participation in this study was one of the reasons its duration lasted from the first draft proposal in 1993 until submission of the Environmental Study Report in December 1997.  Thereafter we made an extensive submission to the Minister of Environment setting out our serious concerns about the integrity of study process and its findings.

Concurrently we worked closely with Canadian Heritage Landscapes, (CHL), an associated group, which did an incredible amount of work addressing both the location and extensive French, English, First Nations and Military history that occurred near the highway route.  

Our group stood down when the subsequent Liberal Government shelved this project, implemented a number of important environmental protection statues and inaugurated the Barrie Go Train Service.  

The government’s apparent zeal to resurrect this highway on an expedited basis, combined with the apparent lack of awareness of this highway amongst most of our neighbours, has caused us to reconstitute FROGS.  Our objective is to add our voice to the many environmental groups in southern Ontario who are fighting this unnecessary highway in the hope that eventually reason will prevail and this highway will once again be stopped.