I have significant concerns…

I have significant concerns about the introduction of Bill 66, and think that as it stands it is a dangerous piece of legislation that seriously erodes the environmental protections associated with development in Ontario. These environmental protections are sensible and any impact they have on the development industry is negligible relative to the benefit they give to the province. I am particularly concerned with Schedule 10. Bill 66 functionally removes the Planning Act as a legislative trigger for archaeological or heritage assessment in Ontario. Under Bill 66 open-for-business by-laws, Subsection 3(5) and Subsection 24 of the Planning Act will not apply. Subsection 3(5) is the section of the Planning Act that gives authority to the Provincial Policy Statement. Therefore PPS 2014, and the archaeology and heritage policies it contains, will no longer apply. Subsection 24 of the planning act states all public work and by-laws passed must conform to an Official Plan. Therefore, archaeology and heritage policies within a municipal Official Plan will no longer apply. These are the two main regulatory triggers leading to archaeological and heritage assessments under the Planning Act. If adopted by municipalities on a large-scale in Ontario, Bill 66 will lead to the destruction of archaeological and heritage resources across the province at a rate not seen since the 1990s. How will the province ensure that archaeological and heritage resources of provincial concern are not destroyed without the required assessment? To say nothing of the fact that removal of the archaeological trigger will directly impact Indigenous communities right to be involved with mitigation of archaeological resources within their traditional territories. The provincial government is shortsightedly opening itself to significant long-term lawsuits that it will lose with this ill-conceived piece of legislation. It will cost the tax payers significant amounts of money, with the only benefit being enriching, in the very short term, a handful of wealthy investors in the development industry.