I strongly oppose this bill…

I strongly oppose this bill with every fibre of my being. This bill oversteps the government's right to the land, completely disregarding and disrespecting Indigenous rights. The government should not have unlimited rights to provide any proponent or business the ability to conduct any activity it wants in any area the government chooses without oversight. This bill exempts development from critical environmental and archaeological assessments. These assessments are important and necessary. The government is not a scientific authority and needs to defer to the expertise of environmental and other experts. Respecting Indigenous rights and our environmental responsibility is not optional, it is not something that can or should be waived.

Further, this bill allows the government to avoid public accountability, shielding itself from civil liability and protecting anyone involved in these projects from lawsuits, a measure clearly taken because the provisions in this bill are unjust, inviting shoddy, environmentally devastating, and harmful projects, and will inevitably lead to lawsuits. A democratic government represents and works for its citizens, citizens who should be able to hold it accountable, legally. The government is far from infallible and has a responsibility to respond to it's citizens criticisms and values. The first response to knowing you are doing lawsuit inducing practices cannot be to prohibit lawsuits and silence opposition.

This bill further erodes public participation in government activities by nonsensically exempting any proposal related to Ontario Place from being posted on the Environmental Registry of Ontario for public review. This is a hugely unpopular and expensive private enterprise being built on public parkland, and you intend to prevent citizens from voicing their numerous concerns through the government's own registry. Citizen's feedback is something that should be invited as a fundamental aspect of governance, not silenced for the sake of private business. The government is an institution that demands accountability.

I am also extremely concerned by the replacement of the Endangered Species Act. Politicians and bureaucrats have neither the education, expertise or impartiality to replace scientists in deciding which plants and animals should be protected. This bill also abolishes obligations for the government to create recovery strategies and report on them, completely hollowing the act. The endangered species act is a commitment, a responsibility, and a moral obligation, it cannot be waived when one finds it inconvenient. The government should act to find optimal and creative solutions for all of its problems, including the rapidly escalating environmental crisis, not simply pretend that only one problem exists at a time. Erasing the rulebook is not how you find solutions. Instead consider that there is more than enough unprotected land to support housing, transit and infrastructure projects. Our environment is not something to be sacrificed for vague "economic progress," especially when the "progress" is based on regressive mining and construction practices that are unsustainable and cause more problems than they solve.

This bill disregards or deliberately rejects so many of the government's fundamental responsibilities and protections that I value in our province. It is a dramatic overreach of the government's right to the land. It makes a mockery of the basic tenets of democracy and social responsibility. It is a "move fast and break things" logic happening in the dark, a process that will leave Ontario with mere shards of its reputation, it's institutions, and it's future. I urge you to withdraw this proposal for the greater good of Ontario, as a place and as a people.