Yes I agree that this was not well thought out by the Harris government and another Conservative boondoggle. 
The Conservative government of Mike Harris  foolishly leased this road for 99 years to a Quebec-based company for a substantial amount of money. This was in May 1999, and was done to reduce the deficit and look good.
Before the Harris government could lease the road, however, they had to pass new legislation to allow this, because Ontario never before had a ‘public road’ been sold to a private company. This very flawed legislation was passed in November 1998. The new Quebec owners then closed the deal and Ontario had ‘sold’ it’s first highway.
This Quebec company then sold the road at a profit to Spanish owners, thus assuring that profits from the road would never be taxed in Canada.