This Bill is very concerning…

This Bill is very concerning to me and my family, and my family in future generations. Many of the provisions in the act would permit unilateral, irreversible, and incontestable changes in the fundamental character of Ontario. Repeal of the Toxics Reduction Act and deregulation of the Clean Waters Act would permit the potential fouling of water and soil resources on which Ontario depends for safe drinking water, safe food production into the future, and clean air on which we all rely. Notwithstanding pressures from agricultural and industrial lobbies who stand to increase short term profitability marginally from looser regulations, the long term effects of remediation or loss of agricultural land for the future, of making our water sources unfit for drinking or irrigation, and of health care expenses for treating environmental illness (e.g. E. coli poisoning in Walkerton, respiratory and cardiac conditions in northeast Hamilton) will all impose future costs on every Ontarian for the short term benefit of a few.

Development of livable human environments requires a degree of advanced planning and of stability that seems to be completely ignored by this bill. Livable human environments do require employment opportunities, but they also, especially in cities, require opportunities for personal growth and fulfillment, for healthy living, for rearing children in a safe and stimulating place, and for a vibrant cultural, recreational and natural environment. It is worth remembering that people are what municipalities are all about. Planning should be about creating places where people want to live and work, and it is those people who generate most of the distributed economic activity that actually sustains the urban area. People want a stable, predictable living environment in which to establish their lives. This legislation creates anything but. If people are forced to live in a state of constant uncertainty about their own immediate surroundings because an economic elite controls or overrides the planning processes, Ontario will become a much less desirable place to live.