This bill is based on a…

This bill is based on a false premise of addressing tariffs imposed by a particular foreign entity and does nothing to promote the ability of Ontario to meet the strict environmental requirements for trade with other nations than the aforesaid entity. Indeed, by ignoring the environmental laws developed by previous generations of Ontario Citizens and passed by previous legislatures, bill 5 decreases the ability of Ontario to negotiate trade with European Economic Union nations who demand strong environmental protections on the originating location of the traded goods.

Bill 5 also eliminates the core elements and values of a representative democracy, specifically the oversight and balances on the executive branch by the legal and legislative branches of the province. Indeed, by emphasizing unnamed “trusted proponents” and eliminating the zones from the enforcement of several laws enacted by previous governments of Ontario, the Executive Branch is behaving more like a gang operating by its own internal standards without any oversight. (e.g. the bar on legal proceedings).

The proposed definition of “habitat” (section 2(1)) demonstrates the bill's complete ignorance of the systems a species needs for a viable habitat. Therefore bill 5 ensures that endangered species will go to extinction due to the limited understanding in bill 5 of the interconnected systems required to secure a livable habitat for any species. Any outdoorsman should be opposed to this bill due to uncertainties about where the zones will be created and how species will survive the zone.

As mentioned above, the delegation of powers to unspecified “trusted proponents” risks the danger of cronyism and special interest groups hijacking Ontario’s environmental and trading future. Bill 5 contains echoes of the Green Belt fiasco initiated in a previous legislative iteration that had to be repealed.

I oppose all sections of bill 5 and urge maintaining of the pre-existing standards and legislation coupled with immediate hiring and training of additional government staff to properly and expediently administer, oversee and implement the said pre-existing legislation.

The main weaknesses of this proposed legislation are the lack of any oversight on the powers it extends to ministers, proposed trusted proponents, and the elimination of the balancing elements of democracy vested in the processes of ongoing oversight of legislative debate, public comment and legal recourse.