Bill 66, Restoring Ontario’s…

Bill 66, Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, 2018, ERO number 013-4293

Schedule 10 of the proposed legislation would allow municipalities to create an “open-for-business planning by-law” to circumvent planning requirements and land use restrictions under numerous provincial laws, plans and policies.

It would undermine everything we have learned – sometimes under tragic circumstances – about how to protect our environment, and the health of people and communities across Ontario.

We do not want another disaster like Walkerton, or unnecessarily put more stressors on our farmland, natural heritage system, our rivers’ headwaters, native wildlife species and their habitats, the Great Lakes, Lake Simcoe, The Oak Ridges Moraine and Ontario biodiversity.

The fact that provincial government is choosing a course that we can reasonably know will add stressors to an already stressed environment is obviously a very serious issue. At this point, these problems are knowable. The consequences for the environment, human health and indeed climate change are predictable. How we now choose to proceed raises profound questions about our collective obligations to one another, to our society and the entire ecosystem. It raises profound questions about the choices this provincial government is making now as reflected in discussed Bill 66.

“Open-for-business by-laws” can bypass legal requirements intended to ensure fair, consistent and transparent public engagement with land use decisions in our communities.

In other words, these “open-for-business by-laws” would turn back the clock on many years of good planning, community input and strong leadership from previous Progressive Conservative and Liberal governments. They would sidestep laws and policies intended to protect the long-term health and resilience of our communities and their residents by facilitating sprawling and unchecked development in areas that are home to sensitive natural features and the water resources upon which we all rely.