I strongly oppose Bill 005 -…

I strongly oppose Bill 005 - Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act. This Bill should be repealed as it has wide ranging negative impacts to the rule of law, transparency & accountability, environment and tourism.
Bill 005, if enacted, will weaken or eliminate legislative safeguards which protect the environment, human health, Indigenous rights, local communities and municipal and provincial laws with zero accountability.

The Ontario government should be stewards of our natural resources and environment with the intent of ensuring current and future generations can enjoy the benefits. The government needs to ensure our natural world remains protected. Instead, this government is introducing legislation that ignores existing laws. Worse yet this government is eliminating the need to inform the public. This is not good government.

Following are the negative impacts of Bill 005.

Bill 005 repeals Ontario’s Endangered Species Act, 2007, marking the end of meaningful protections for endangered, threatened and special concern species in Ontario. The new Species Conservation Act (Schedules 2 & 10) proposed in Bill 005 would strip away real protections for at-risk species and their habitats. Science and recovery planning are being replaced by an empty process that can’t protect our wildlife.

Bill 005 undermines the fundamental rights of Indigenous communities to free, prior and informed consent when it comes to projects on their territories, an essential safeguard for equitable and sustainable development. It attempts to curtail Indigenous involvement by ending archeological assessment requirements that would identify Indigenous or other cultural values.

Bill 005 creates Special Economic Zones (schedule 9) anywhere in the province. It gives Premier Ford and his Cabinet unprecedented powers to give corporations, developer friends or anyone else they choose an exemption from all provincial and municipal laws (including environmental, labour conditions, public health and safety, heritage and even the Environmental Bill of Rights) for these designated Special Economic Zones. There are no limits, no rules, and no public input. This is not how democracy works. Any region could be named one in which fundamental labour rights and protections no longer apply, including those around child labour, the right to refuse unsafe work, and even basic meal breaks.

Bill 005 keeps Ontario dependent on imported fracked gas from the U.S by killing homegrown renewable energy. If passed, Bill 005 would enable the government to ban all parts of energy projects that come from abroad, especially China. China makes the majority of solar panels (over 80 per cent), wind turbines (around 60 per cent) and control systems in the world. If enacted, this will likely end solar power installation in Ontario and deprive Ontarians access to the cleanest source of new electricity available.

Bill 005 eliminates the Ontario government’s requirement for an environmental assessment of a proposed dump site in Dresden and a mine in northern Ontario. The exemption for the Eagle’s Nest mine (Schedule 3) removes the need for a full environmental assessment — ignoring the serious risks to climate-critical peatlands and Indigenous territory. This goes against Canada’s commitments to reconciliation and climate action.

Bill 005 exempts Ontario Place from environmental notifications.
Bill 005 is doing this because months previously the province had to withdraw plans for a controversial sewage pipe that aimed to pump water waste into Ontario’s Place’s West Channel — a proposal that garnered public opposition after it was posted on the Environmental Registry of Ontario. The new legislation would allow that step to be skipped for future projects on the waterfront lands. Dumping sewage into waterways as a backup for overflow will pump them full of bacteria and nutrients that can damage ecosystems and threaten public health. This is knowingly not notifying the public of controversial decisions that would have negative impact to the people of Ontario, environment, ecosystems and tourism. Instead of spending billions on a tunnel under the 401, this Ontario government should be spending money to ensure that our environment is protected and safe for everyone to use today and IN THE FUTURE. Money should be spent to ensure sewage never is sent into our waterways.

Bill 005 exempts the Therme Group development at Ontario Place from the requirements of the Environmental Bill of Rights.

The threats from USA tariffs and their fallout are real but you can’t solve this economic problem by creating dozens of others. Bill 005 creates the conditions in which corporate greed can flourish unchecked and without fundamental protections. Like the Greenbelt scandal, it’s an example of the government disguising unrelated favours to its ‘friends’ as part of a policy response to very real crises.

I urge you to withdraw Bill 5 immediately.