My primary comment is that…

My primary comment is that Schedule 10 is bad for the residents of Ontario. Allowing special employment zones that can potentially ignore the requirements of the Clean Water Act, the Great Lakes Protection Act, the Greenbelt Act, the Lake Simcoe Protection Act, the Metrolinx Act, et al., will be a step backwards for the province. What is the point of those acts if we are creating workarounds to allow ourselves to break the requirements of those acts? We aren't living in North Korea or some other third world country where they create special economic zones for the purpose of creating jobs, even though those zones end up costing the country more money in the long term which negates the benefits of the increased employment. Why are we trying third world strategies to create employment when the unemployment rate in Ontario is near 5-year lows? The only explanation i can think of is that the government is pandering to business interests that are looking for cheap land to build on. Luckily this legislation would require local municipalities to apply to create these business zones and i suspect that doing so would be deeply unpopular, so i doubt many (if any) would be created. At which point I ask, what's the point?

I don't fully understand the repeal of the pawnbrokers act? Pawn shops typically deal with people in vulnerable situations. I'd prefer to know that pawn shops aren't just run willy-nilly by potentially unscrupulous people. Regulation can provide some protections to vulnerable people. If there's concern that the regulation isn't working, step up inspections of shops and enforcement.