Big part of Highway 407 is about to become free in Ontario

A big part of Highway 407 is about to become free for drivers to use.

Making good on an election promise, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said earlier this month that tolls will be removed from the provincially owned portion of the 407.

“In a few short weeks, once the legislation is passed, there will not be one single publicly owned tolled highway left in Ontario,” Ford said at a May 13 press conference.

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“And that’s thanks to our government’s ban on new road tolls in the province.”

The Ford government previously removed tolls from Highways 412 and 418 in Durham Region.

The province owns the eastern portion of Highway 407, from Brock Road in Pickering to Highway 35/115 in Clarington — that’s the section that will become free to use.

The government said that the change is set to take effect on June 1, which is this upcoming Sunday.

That means drivers have just a few more days of having to pay to use that part of the highway.

Once the tolls are gone, the government said daily commuters are expected to save $7,200 annually.

Tolls will still remain on the 407 ETR — the privately owned portion of the highway, which makes up the majority of the roadway, stretching from Burlington to Brock Road.

The PC government sold it off in 1999 for $3.1 billion.

Ford has called that a “big mistake,” and has previously mused about buying it back.

— With files from The Canadian Press