Bill 66 contains several…

Bill 66 contains several items which I don’t believe will be good at all for the people of Ontario.

Schedule 3, loosening the limits on daycares, puts our kids at risk in the guise of making it easier for parents to find affordable health care. There’s nothing stopping daycares from charging the same high fees that they do now, so I don’t see how this proposal would make daycare affordable.

Schedule 5, repealing the Toxics Reduction Act is also ill-advised. You say that the Federal Chemicals Management Plan will be relied on instead. However, the Toxics Reduction Act requires industries to reduce their use of certain toxic chemicals over time. The Federal Act does not contain any requirements for reduction of chemical use. It’s deceitful to imply that the Federal Act is the same as the Toxics Reduction Act.

Schedule 7, repealing the Wireless Services Act will remove the cap to cancellation fees, and several other consumer protections. This will increase our costs and does nothing to save money for Ontarians.

Similarly, allowing employers to use overtime averaging (Schedule 9) does nothing but rob workers of their overtime pay so that companies can save a few bucks. How is that “For the People”?

And, finally, the “Open for Business Bylaw” outlined in Schedule 10- this is the worst idea in the whole Bill. Over the past several weeks, I’ve been hearing several PC MPPs saying that environmental protections like the Greenbelt Act, Clean Water Act, etc. “won’t be touched”. If that is true then remove that wording from the Bill completely! These environmental regulations were created to protect us, and by allowing companies to side-step them while removing public consultation or the ability to appeal is a recipe for disaster. I’ve been very relieved to see that most of our municipal governments (Burlington, Guelph, Vaughan, etc.) have already rejected this proposed by-law flat-out. As they should.

In short – Stop Bill 66!