The Board of Lakeshore Eco…

The Board of Lakeshore Eco-Network, a non-profit corporation located on Ontario’s west coast, wishes to express its absolute horror and disgust at the Ford government’s proposed Bill 5.
Ripping a page from the Trump playbook, Premier Doug Ford and his administration have once again proposed putting unfettered development ahead of the health and wellbeing of Ontarians and the environment that supports us. With supreme irony, they claim the legislation will “protect Ontario” from the economic impact of the Trump trade war.

If passed, Bill 5, will:
• enable the government to ban all parts of energy projects that come from abroad, especially China. If enacted, this will likely end solar power installation in Ontario and deprive Ontarians access to the cleanest source of new electricity available.
• repeal Ontario’s Endangered Species Act, 2007 marking the end of most meaningful provincial protections for endangered, threatened and special concern species in Ontario.
• attempt to curtail Indigenous involvement by ending archeological assessment requirements that would identify Indigenous or other cultural values.
• create Special Economic Zones (SEZ), where hand-picked developers can ignore municipal and provincial laws.
• exempt the Therme Group development at Ontario Place from the requirements of the Environmental Bill of Rights.

As we face a critical threshold in the climate crisis, the Ontario government is heedlessly accelerating its attacks on our environment. On behalf of all Ontarians, human and non-human, we demand the immediate withdrawal of Bill 5.