My objections to Bill 5, the…

My objections to Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act:
Bill 5 is a direct attack on Ontario democracy. The Special Economic Zones Act would provide dictatorial powers to the provincial Cabinet, allowing them to create law-free zones, where provincial and municipal laws (including environmental, labour, public safety, heritage and even the Environmental Bill of Rights) do not apply. The same law-free status could be provided to any project or proponent. “Special Economic Zones” used elsewhere, usually in dictatorships, have often failed to meet their economic goals and have caused significant social, human rights and environmental damage.
* Thus, Bill 5 and the Special Economic Zones Act would: Give Premier Ford and his cabinet unprecedented power over our communities, including powers to dictate who is exempt from the law and who is not. … it would be a direct attack on healthy communities, good planning, clean water and air, species at risk and the rights of Indigenous people—all to benefit a handful of the government’s hand-picked friends. In other words, it would make a nonsense of democracy and render local governments impotent.
* Bill 5 would: Enable the executive branch of the government to unilaterally do away with legal safeguards that protect vulnerable communities and Indigenous people, paving the way for corporations to bypass labour and environmental laws.
* Bill 5 would: Repeal Ontario’s Endangered Species Act, 2007, marking the end of meaningful protections for endangered, threatened and special concern species in Ontario
* Bill 5 would: Keep Ontario dependent on imported fracked gas from the U.S by banning Chinese components in energy projects - shutting the door on clean, affordable wind and solar energy and battery storage
* Bill 5 would: Eliminate the Ontario government’s requirement for an environmental assessment of a proposed dump site in Dresden and a mine in northern Ontario.
* Bill 5’s “special economic zones” would: Bring worst US-style labour practices to our province. The creation of Special Economic Zones would give give Cabinet the power to roll back hard-won workers' rights and protections going back decades, such as health and safety, a minimum wage, or employment protections, including the right to recourse when injured, fired or mistreated on the job. Existing Ontario labour law won’t apply in these special economic zones. Within these zones, the provincial government can suspend or override all existing laws and regulations around labour conditions, health and safety, and environmental protections, as well as municipal regulations.
* Under Bill 5, entire cities – like Toronto or Windsor or Sudbury – could be turned into special economic zones. 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. This would make a nonsense of municipal government and render representation at the local level meaningless.
*Bill 5 would: Threaten Toronto’s 15-year-old “green standard,” which limits the greenhouse gas emissions new buildings can emit and ensures homes are resilient to flash flooding and other consequences of climate change, meaning that people buying new homes would pay more for heating and cooling.
*Bill 5 would: silence community voices, marginalize science and erase decades of hard-won environmental progress.

I urge the Ontario government to withdraw Bill 5 in its entirety and instead work with environmental experts, Indigenous leaders and the public to strengthen — not dismantle — our systems of environmental protection.
Protecting nature is not a barrier to economic growth. It’s the foundation of a healthy, resilient and just society.