To Whom It May Concern: The…

To Whom It May Concern:

The Grand River Environmental Network is a proactive voice for the environment in the Grand River watershed. We are activists, watchdogs, guardians, stewards, and concerned citizens across this vast part of Ontario that is home to almost 1 million people.

It is extremely troubling to see the proposed changes and new proposals in Bill 5, the Protect Ontario By Unleashing Our Economy Act. All of them are against the greater public good and the best public interest and the entire Bill needs to be withdrawn.

The attacks on heritage protections is very concerning.

In fact, every facet of Bill 5 is troubling;

The entire concept of Special Economic Zones overriding local and provincial regulations and laws is horrifying particularly with the concept of “Trusted Proponents”. The opportunity for mis-use, over-use, and government overreach is certainly not in the best public interest.

In this era of global climate crisis we need more protections for our natural environment, communities and heritage – not less.

The elimination of the globally-leading Endangered Species Act is horrific – our threatened and rapidly declining mammal, reptile, avian, flora and fauna species need more recovery strategies and protection – not less.

We need more ability to appeal to government and raise concerns – not less.

Our municipalities need more guidance and oversight in these complex times – not less.

There needs to be more analysis and understanding of impacts of development on archeological sites and more protection of heritage sites – not less.

We need to be doing everything possible to promote clean energy like wind and solar. Limiting and potentially even banning the importation of critical components that could severely limit our ability to deploy the clean, efficient, and pollution-free energy the rest of the world is rapidly deploying is confounding. We need more clean energy – not less.

And last but not least particularly distressing is the way that aboriginal and/or treaty rights are dealt with in the new the proposal which poses great risks to Ancestor burial and archaeological sites, and does not fulfill the constitutional Duty to Consult and Accommodate. It puts Ontario in violation of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) which Canada adopted in 2016.

It is extremely concerning to see our provincial government proposing this entire Bill – changing things in such troubling ways and see more things exempted from proper planning, assessment and review when we actually need more oversight, more resilience, better planning, and better collaboration between all levels of government – not the abdication of the province to protect the public, our environment, our natural heritage, our cultural heritage and the greater public good.

We are totally against these proposed changes and we strongly urge the Premier, Minister, Ministry, and the province to abandon this entire Bill and maintain the current regulations that have served our province well for so many years.