EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives have passed Bill 5, setting their controversial “special economic zones” legislation to become law in Ontario.
Ford’s PCs voted on Wednesday to pass the legislation titled the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act. The bill which includes the new Special Economic Zones Act, only awaits Ontario’s lieutenant-governor’s royal assent sign-off.
The law will give the provincial cabinet the power to designate “special economic zones” where it could then exempt specific projects and proponents, like companies, from any provincial laws, regulations and local bylaws. Being provincial legislation, the requirements of federal laws would still apply.
Bill 5 also creates another new law, the Species Conservation Act, which would replace Ontario’s Endangered Species Act at a future date decided by cabinet. Some activist organizations have warned that the new law weakens protections for endangered species.
The government’s Ontario Place redevelopment is also exempted from certain environmental requirements by Bill 5, as is a single landfill in Dresden, Ont. The province’s integrity commissioner is considering investigating the latter, stemming from reporting by The Trillium over ties the premier shares with its owners, along with their history as major PC donors.
The exemption of the Dresden landfill from an environmental assessment is a small sliver of the bill. None of the other hundreds of landfills in Ontario would be directly affected by Bill 5 like the Dresden landfill is.
Several more existing laws will be changed by Bill 5, including some that impact heritage protections, the province’s energy sector and mining — to eliminate duplicate approvals processes.
The Ford government has said changes to Ontario’s laws made by the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act are needed in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats toward Canada and its economy. Important projects — like accessing critical minerals in northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire — are too often held up by overburdensome approvals processes, it’s argued.
Ford has said that the province would use the special economic zone powers on the Ring of Fire, as well as to build a tunnel expressway under Highway 401, new GO rail lines and more.
The New Democrats, Liberals, Greens and the lone Independent at Queen’s Park all intensely opposed Bill 5. Since its introduction, opposition parties and MPPs have argued that the special economic zone powers are a government overreach and ripe for abuse.
Many Indigenous groups and leaders have also spoken out against the cabinet powers the legislation would create, warning they could be used to attempt to get around First Nations’ Treaty rights. Some have also suggested that future special economic zone designations could spark protests, blockades and a re-invigoration of the Idle No More movement. They and other groups, including environmental advocacy organizations, have also threatened to challenge the legislation in court.
“First Nations are not against development, but development and economic ventures must be done right,” said Sol Mamakwa, the NDP MPP for Kiiwetinoong, who is Anishinaabe and a member of Kingfisher Lake First Nation, during lawmakers’ final round of debate over the bill.
“I hope it won’t end up in the courts,” Ford said on Wednesday. “And we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
The premier went on to add, “We need to get moving, folks.”
“We need to get moving, folks. We do two things: we can sit back and basically watch our economy die and jobs being lost, or we can move forward, work collaboratively with the stakeholders, along with Indigenous communities — and everyone thrives,” Ford said. “Option one, of sitting back, that’s not our government. That’s not what it was elected on.”
As Bill 5 neared passage within the legislature at Queen’s Park, a group of dozens of Indigenous people and other advocates rallied against it outside. Their demonstration followed several others at Queen’s Park in the months since the Ford government introduced the bill.
At least several people in the public galleries of the legislature were removed by security for interrupting the final vote on the legislation, including with shouts of “shame” directed at PC MPPs.
Leading up to Bill 5’s passage, the NDP and Liberals tried a few procedural tactics to stall the legislation.
In a last-ditch effort on Tuesday, Liberal MPPs tabled thousands of amendments with a parliamentary committee to prevent the PCs from making amendments they hoped to add in response to pushback to the bill. Ford’s PCs, who control 80 of the 124 seats at the Ontario legislature, passed the bill anyway. The premier wasn’t present for the vote. MPPs in the opposition at Queen’s Park unanimously voted against it.
Thursday is scheduled to be the final sitting day at Queen’s Park until September, meaning that it likely won’t be until fall that Ford’s PCs could amend Bill 5 in the way they had planned to.
