SCHEDULE 10: Ministry of…

SCHEDULE 10: Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing - Planning Act
The Open for Business ByLaw (OfBB) will enable any municipality to forgo all regulations and Official Plans of Municipal, Regional and the Ontario governments.
The regulations, such as the Clean Water Act were enacted to protect the people of Ontario from another incident such as the Walkerton incident, where PEOPLE DIED. Other Ontario regulations have been instituted to protect the People and the Environment we all share, be it Air, Water or the Ground we grow food in. These regulations cannot be ignored nor by-passed at the whim of ANY government. They are there for the People of Ontario, ALL the PEOPLE!
REMOVE Schedule 10 and continue to protect the Ontario Environment and the People of Ontario.

Plans whether they be Official or not, whether they are Municipal, Regional or Provincial are the work of many government and non-government peoples who are focused on developing their respective lands in a manner that works for the community. One of the MANY benefits of OP's is in preventing conflicts between Commercial & Industrial (C&I) entities and the residents. It prevents C&I conflicts with institutions that are incompatible with operational aspects of C&I entities.
If Schedule 10 allows municipalities to ignore or bypass Official Plans, that can only result in generating conflicts and chaos within a community.
REMOVE Schedule 10 and continue to use the Official Plans (OP's) developed by thousands of hours of work to enable our communities to flourish in a cohesive manner.

SCHEDULE 5 - The Schedule amends the Toxics Reduction Act (TRA), 2009 to provide that the Act is repealed on December 31, 2021.
According to a Law Society of Upper Canada report: Given the high levels of release of toxic substances, carcinogens, and developmental/reproductive toxicants in the Ontario environment, and the failure of Ontario’s traditional pollution laws and CEPA 1999 to grapple effectively with that problem, which has had the effect of making the province one of the top emitters of such substances in North America, the expectation is that a law that focused primarily on reduction in the use and creation of such substances could improve environmental health in the province.

Under the “BENEFITS OF TOXICS REDUCTION"
• Based on the experience in other jurisdictions, the benefits of a toxics reduction regime in Ontario include:

o Less pollution, leading to a cleaner environment and safer products;

o Reduction in public health risks, and contribution to safer and cleaner workplaces;

o Savings in money to companies through implementation of pollution prevention plans;

o Promotion of cleaner, more innovative technologies and development of greener products;

o Lower compliance costs for companies and lower enforcement costs for government agencies; and

o Reduction in the need for further management of hazardous wastes.

Under CONCLUSIONS:
TRA focuses on pollution prevention, not pollution control as well as one that is information based, not command and control driven. The Act’s twin purposes of (1) preventing pollution and protecting human health and the environment by reducing the use and creation of toxic substances, and (2) informing Ontarians about toxic substances, is a story of success.

FROM MY EXPERIENCE:
This regulation was instrumental in moving the company I worked for, at the time, to eliminate several toxic substances from our process and site in general. Up until this regulation came into being, we were unmindful of specific toxins. As referred to above, we were focused on emissions overall and emission controls, rather than looking at eliminating toxins at the source.

Lastly on TRA, the fact that the Auditor General of Ontario has chosen year in and year out, not to conduct an audit on the TRA, speaks to the efficiency/effectiveness of the Act.

Repealing this Act and it’s regulations is a significant step backward on reducing Toxic Emissions in Ontario, wherein we are the top emitter of Toxins in North America, as stated in the above submission by the Law Society of Upper Canada.
REMOVE Schedule 5.

SCHEDULE 2: The Schedule repeals the Pawnbrokers Act and makes a consequential amendment to the Personal Property Security Act.
Since the Pawnbrokers Act requires:
1) ALL items brought into a shop (even prior to an agreement to receive the item) is tracked and numbered.
2) employees to notify Police Services if they believe an item to be stolen.
Without such controls/requirements on Pawnbrokers, these establishments will be enabled to receive and sell stolen goods at will. Such an environment WILL result in increased burglaries, which will increase the workload for all Police Services of Ontario, including the Court Systems that support them in upholding the Laws of Theft.
There can be NO GOOD to come from repealing this Act.
REMOVE Schedule 2.

SCHEDULE 7: Ministry of Government and Consumer Services - Technical Standards and Safety Act (TSSA), 2000
The TSSA is focused on ensuring Natural Gas, Propane and other fuel equipment is being operated and maintained in a responsible manner. It came to being following a massive explosion, which I cannot remember where. Mississauga?

My concerns with this Schedule are:
1) The removal of any application for the "upholstered or stuffed articles” industry. There have been countless incidents of upholstered or stuffed articles causing deaths or exposures to toxic chemicals originating in jurisdictions that are not controlled by Ontario let alone Canada. It is this control that is gained by having such items covered under the TSSA.

2) The addition throughout the TSSA of the words “alternate rules”.
Allowing the Director of the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services to develop an "alternate rule" for various parts of the Act. This weakens the Act, by allowing alternate rules to be put into effect without Legislative approval and circumvents the intent of the Act in the first place.
REMOVE Schedule 7.