Statement By Phil Pothen, Counsel & Ontario Environment Program Manager
Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – Ontario’s Premier and Cabinet are proposing to keep their sweeping and unprecedented powers under the new Special Economic Zones Act dangerously unchecked.
The content of the draft “criteria” regulations posted today is too vague, too subjective, and too riddled with loopholes to meaningfully constrain the Premier’s power to impose “Special Economic Zones,” or hand his friends “Designated Project” or “Trusted Proponent” status. For example, there is no outright prohibition on exemptions that would cause serious and irreversible harm to the environment or human health. Despite the national sovereignty rhetoric used to justify the Special Economic Zones Act, the regulation would not even prohibit the granting of “trusted proponent” status to companies controlled by foreign governments or politicians.
Even more important, because these proposed “criteria” are mere regulations, rather than amendments to the Act itself, they could not actually prevent the Premier and Cabinet from extending “above the law” status to any person, company, or project that they favour. Nor could they prevent them from imposing a Special Economic Zone on any neighbourhood or region they choose. That is because the Premier and Cabinet themselves would be free to unilaterally scrap or change any criterion standing in their way without the approval of elected MPPs.
These proposed regulations would do little to mitigate the environmental dangers, the threats to public safety, and the corruption risk created by the fact that Bill 5 replaces fixed rules with executive favours. Citizens, municipalities, workers and businesses would still be reduced to being supplicants who stand to gain from currying the Premier’s favour, and stand to lose out badly if they publicly challenge the current government or criticize its actions.
If Premier Ford and his Cabinet are not yet willing to give up these unprecedented powers, they should at least be subject to objective, enforceable restrictions that offer meaningful protection to the environment and people, and which cannot be changed without the approval of elected MPPs.
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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:
Brittany Harris, media@environmentaldefence.ca
