Submitted to: The…

Submitted to: The Environmental Registry of Ontario

Re: ERO #013-4293, Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, 2018

Sierra Club Canada Foundation is a national, grassroots organization that empowers people to be leaders in protecting, restoring and enjoying healthy and safe ecosystems. The Ontario Chapter of Sierra Club focuses on protecting the Great Lakes ecosystem, growing and protecting the Greenbelt, and promoting Green Energy adoption in Ontario. Sierra Club Ontario also works on local issues, in coordination with smaller communities in Ontario

Sierra Club Canada Foundation staunchly opposes the Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, 2018 (ERO #013-4293).

Bill 66 strips away zoning provisions that protect environmental and human health, leaving Ontario’s Greenbelt, farmland, and clean drinking water vulnerable to the abuse of developers.

Created in 2005, Ontario’s Greenbelt is a permanently protected area of farmland, forests, watersheds, and wetlands. It is one of the largest greenbelts in the world at nearly two million acres. The Greenbelt provides us with clean water, fresh air, and local food, as well as recreation. Established to guard against urban sprawl and protect precious agricultural land, it serves as a vital piece of our provincial economy and heritage.

Schedules 5 and 10 of Bill 66 allow “Open for Business” by-laws to circumvent existing planning legislation and environmental guidelines that are vital to keeping our drinking water clean, including:
· Ontario Planning and Development Act, 1994
· Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, 2001
· Greenbelt Act, 2005
· Places to Grow Act, 2005
· Metrolinx Act, 2006
· Clean Water Act, 2006
· Lake Simcoe Protection Act, 2008
· Toxics Reduction Act, 2009
· Great Lakes Protection Act, 2015

The bill leaves space for further non-compliance by naming any other “prescribed provisions” in provincial legislation.

Public consultation is not required to pass “Open for Business” by-laws, meaning citizens will not be aware of them until they’re enacted. Community members are left without recourse if they take issue with them, as they are not permitted to appeal to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal. This is an erosion of transparency and leaves communities in the dark about what’s happening in their own backyard.

Decades of work have gone into Ontario’s land use planning and environmental protection statutes. Bill 66 casts that aside, erroneously labeling it “red tape,” and allows developers to do as they please. This is not efficiency, and it is certainly not stewardship.

Ontarians deserve better.