I am writing to request that…

I am writing to request that Schedule 3 be removed from Bill 257.
Schedule 3 would allow Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZO) to be issued without regard to the Provincial Policy Statements. This would pose a significant threat to environmentally sensitive areas, including provincially protected areas and farmland. Also this would allow the Minister, through the use of the MZO, to ignore all municipal planning and zoning regulations to advance any development, no matter what the impacts on the community, without any public consultation.
Municipal planning and zoning regulations, and changes to these regulations, are developed in accordance with processes that involve sometimes extensive public consultation and take into consideration all the potential impacts on the community, including environmental, and ensure measures to mitigate or remediate issues of concern are in place. Lands that are designated as environmentally sensitive are done so as a result of study and consultation by the local conservation authority and the province. These lands also include that would hazardous to build on as well lands that are environmentally sensitive. The indiscriminate use of MZOs, which Schedule 3 would allow would enable the Minister to ignore all this if it was felt expedient at the moment to do so.
The background statement used old age homes and transit projects as examples but in fact so far MZOs have been used to advance private, commercial projects that have little or no public benefit and in some cases appear opportunistic and exploitive.
The Provincial Policy Statements must be followed to protect our environment, farmland, and communities because these are irreplaceable resources that must be safeguarded to ensure a livable future for our province and that development proceeds in a fair manner, with all developers subject to the same published rules, and that is environmentally and economically sustainable.