Proposed Bill 5, "Protecting…

Proposed Bill 5, "Protecting Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act," is not just a misleading title, it’s a calculated smokescreen, in fact, the devil’s in the detail. Split into ten separate schedules with clashing ERO numbers and rammed through under a rushed 30-day consultation, this fragmented approach is a textbook case of regulatory sleight-of-hand. It’s designed to overwhelm, confuse, and silence public and expert voices. Just like the Greenbelt grab, it reeks of a developer-first agenda - fast-tracking sprawl while gutting environmental safeguards. What’s at stake isn’t just process, but principle: the deliberate dismantling of protections and leaving the public with little to no recourse.

Specific to SEZs and related EROs/Schedules: In 'Specific Economic Zones', favoured companies are granted carte blanche to bypass environmental laws, municipal by-laws, and essential regulations. Rules can be rewritten to suit their interests, while legal challenges are effectively shut down - leaving the public powerless and without recourse. This isn’t just a loophole - it’s a complete undermining of accountability, fairness, and the very foundation of regulatory oversight.

The Endangered Species Act is being gutted at its core. Its very purpose is hollowed out, automatic protections eliminated, and critical oversight tools dismantled. Habitat definitions are deliberately narrowed, expert science is pushed aside, and enforcement mechanisms are weakened to the point of uselessness. In a blatant trade-off, species protection is sacrificed for development convenience—paving the way for irreversible damage and pushing endangered species closer to extinction. This isn’t reform - it’s open-season on what little remains of Ontario’s biodiversity.

The government is giving major industrial projects - like the massive Eagle’s Nest mine in Northern Ontario and a waste site in Chatham-Kent -a free pass to skip environmental assessments. By removing these safeguards, it’s slamming the door on transparency, cutting the public and Indigenous communities out of the conversation, and dismantling critical protections for land, water, and wildlife. This isn’t streamlining - it’s erasure of environmental responsibility in the name of unchecked industrial expansion.

Ontario’s Species Conservation Act undermines vital protections by prioritizing extinction over prevention. It limits enforcement, centralizes unchecked ministerial power, and replaces binding regulations with optional guidelines - leaving vulnerable species and critical habitats exposed to even greater risk. This isn’t conservation - it’s a step backward, putting biodiversity in jeopardy for the sake of convenience and control.

These changes hand the Ontario government sweeping, unchecked power over who can access and exploit the province’s mineral resources—especially critical minerals. Framed as an effort to "strengthen the economy while protecting the environment," the reality tells a different story. The sole focus is economic gain, while environmental protection is treated as a vague afterthought - offered in rhetoric but nowhere in substance. The government can override existing rights, cancel claims, and fast-track industrial projects without public oversight. Legal pathways to challenge these decisions are being wiped out, silencing landowners, Indigenous nations, and environmental defenders. This is not a balanced policy - it’s a blatant power grab that prioritizes profit over people, land, and future generations.

New laws grant the government the power to conduct land inspections without consent, restrict Indigenous access to their own artifacts, and enable the seizure and control of cultural heritage. Even worse, sacred sites are now exempt from protection, opening the door for their destruction. These moves fuel surveillance, cultural erasure, and the irreversible loss of land and history - without a shred of accountability. This isn’t governance; it’s an outright assault on Indigenous rights, heritage, and autonomy. In other words, ‘cooperate because there is no alternative’.

I strongly oppose the components of the 10 schedules of Bill 5. This Bill dismantles Ontario’s science-based species protections, narrowing the definition of habitat and granting the government unchecked discretion. By prioritizing rapid development, it abandons ecological responsibility, decimates Indigenous rights, and erodes democratic oversight. The result is devastating: at-risk species are left with no meaningful protections, no clear path to recovery, and communities are stripped of any legal recourse. This Bill doesn't just weaken environmental safeguards - it puts the future of our ecosystems and rights in jeopardy.

A more detailed response to Bill 5 and the EROs/Schedules is attached.