Re: Environmental Registry…

Re: Environmental Registry 013-4239

BILL 66 + GREEN ENERGY ACT - SAME FLAW

Bill 66 has a laudable goal. It seeks to make Ontario more open for business by removing barriers to economic development and by giving municipalities a powerful planning tool for projects that support economic development.

Unfortunately, Bill 66 has the same fatal flaw as the Liberals’ Green Energy Act (GEA): It revokes the Planning Act, which includes the Provincial Policy Statement 2014 (PPS) that requires the careful balancing of the multiple factors involved in any development project. Taken together, the Planning Act and the PPS represent carefully considered input, over many years, from all sectors – business, municipalities, professional associations, citizens, and provincial ministries. These are the documents that control and guide all parties to a development project. They are fundamental to good planning in Ontario.

The GEA aimed to streamline renewable energy projects by removing them from the purview of municipalities and from the requirements of the Planning Act, and placing them under the province’s renewable energy approval process.

Bill 66 is relying on the same strategy to streamline economic development projects, but instead allowing municipalities to proceed unfettered by the Planning Act.

It is a true-ism that municipalities are closer to citizens than the provincial government, and therefore more responsive to citizens’ concerns; however, no municipality should be free to act outside of the well-established legislative framework of the Planning Act and the balanced policy approach of the PPS. This path will undoubtedly lead to unexpected and bad consequences, as happened for the GEA. Bill 66 is a recipe for disruption, turmoil and controversy at the municipal level, which will inevitably reach the provincial government.