Premier Doug Ford sailed to his recent election victory speaking loudly from behind a podium decked out with a 鈥淧rotect Ontario鈥 sign. He ran for a third term laser-focused on promising to save us all from U.S. President Donald Trump.
So why now does it seem that protecting us from the U.S. involves slashing environmental laws and giving special powers to his friends?
Take the newly introduced听听).听From the title, it sounds like the bill is focused on boosting Ontario鈥檚 economy by creating new jobs, finding new markets and generally taking on the U.S. tariffs and threat to Canada鈥檚 sovereignty.
But move past the title and you鈥檒l see a different reality.
The bill would in fact give the Premier and his cabinet the power to hand-pick individuals or companies who would then be allowed to bypass any or all of Ontario鈥檚 provincial and municipal laws. Anyone who makes a successful pitch could听be exempt from all labour, occupational health and safety, pollution, planning and public safety laws for whatever project or development they desire. There are no criteria in the bill for who gets these special powers, on what basis they would be designated or even their geographic scope.
Bill 5 also proposes to exempt the Eagle鈥檚 Nest Mine in northern Ontario and a proposed landfill near Dresden, Ont., from Ontario鈥檚
The mine, which is located near the Ring of Fire, is not expected to meet federal review criteria, meaning that without a provincial assessment it would be allowed to proceed without any social or economic review.
The Ford government initially designated the proposed landfill for an environmental assessment in response to strong opposition from the local community, and in the midst of a provincial byelection. During that byelection, all major candidates came out in opposition of the proposed landfill, including the successful Conservative candidate Steve Pinsonneault. Following Pinsonneault鈥檚 re-election earlier this year, the Ford government seems to have changed its mind 鈥 Bill 5 would now remove the environmental assessment requirement from the landfill and allow it to proceed without review.
These anti-democratic attacks are accompanied by the Bill鈥檚 proposed repeal of the province鈥檚听听If听passed, developers would have no legal requirement to protect plants and animals on the brink of extinction. Even the role of determining which species are endangered or threatened would fall to a government minister, not scientists as is currently the case.
Rather than saving us from the threat of Trump, these seizures of power by the Premier actually mirror the U.S. Administration’s play to slash environmental protections and centralize power in the hands of big-tech billionaires and industry insiders.
Just听weeks after his re-election, Premier Ford now seems to share Trump鈥檚 view that any law that protects water, air, wildlife, cultural values or public safety should be swept away to cater to the interests of his favoured friends. History has shown us that such an approach will be costly for us all, including for business.听
This is not the path that Ontarians were promised by the Premier,听and we need to remind government MPPs across the province that we expect better.听As we know from watching the growing disaster south of the border, the future of our country depends on it.
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