Please reconsider the idea…

Please reconsider the idea of permitting the designation of "special economic zones" in Ontario.

By their very nature, important heritage sites, resources, and conditions require considered and bespoke plans in order to protect them and to address all types of use.
I expect my provincial government to honour that many historic rushed & boom projects have left a poor legacy of social & environmental damage, including species endangerment, long-term water quality issues, lack of faith in government for northern and rural people, and, of course, the necessity to rebuild Indigenous relationships.

We have collectively committed to the time required for the process of informed discourse & uncoerced consent from Indigenous communities...I am proud of the progress that has been made towards the long process of reconciliation, and am very worried about compromising this. I do not see this important unhindered consultation explicitly delineated in Bill 5.

I also find the language provincial government uses when discussing Bill 5 trite, aggressive, juvenile, non-specific, and thoughtless. It harkens to the last century..."unleash" & "unrelenting" come to mind, as well as the nebulous "trusted proponent", and referring to environmental protection processes as "red tape", & the constant implication that public and First Nations consultation processes are needlessly tiresome to industry, which will somehow just pay to fix stuff it wrecks later.
Economic threats are real, but environmental degradation doesn't not happen just because we remove the assessment for it! Also, things are always much harder to repair than to maintain.

Our abundant resources are worth managing with the best science and with meaningful, forward-thinking care... my children certainly expect no less than our considered tending of the land we are stewarding. Please do not remove further species at risk protections that fulsomely support an intact environment such as the rare and diverse habitats of the Greenbelt and the massive carbon-sinking, fire-protecting, water-purifying Great Boreal Forest.

The Ring of Fire area, with diverse communities of people, plants, & animals, as well as it's cultural heritage, and large-scale invaluable ecological resources & processes is worth a comprehensive and not a shortcut strategic plan.

Thank you for taking time to consider my comments,
L.