Dear Editor:
Opposition to Ontario’s Bill 5 matters!
With attention focused on the drama south of the border, it’s easy for the power grab here in Ontario to go pretty much unnoticed.
Still, rallies, protests and campaigns continue, asking for the repeal of this legislation that overrides Indigenous rights, guts the Endangered Species Act and gives developers of “designated projects” a blank cheque to bulldoze over the land without regard to provincial or municipal laws.
In the guise of economic reform, the bill permits development by “trusted proponents” without local or Indigenous consent, with no environmental safeguards and with no accountability.
What could possibly go wrong? A development built over a protected wetland, a landfill polluting a river, loss of prime farmland to a mega-industry.
Three former Toronto mayors warned in a letter to the Toronto Star about a premier with unchecked powers. They said that putting the premier above the law is not red-tape reduction. This is rule-of-law suspension.
I would like to commend Wellington County council for taking a stand on Bill 5’s special economic zones. The warden’s letter to the province expresses the county’s concern about the bill’s scope and the possible consequences of these no-rule zones to the detriment of the people and communities the government is here to protect and serve.
In this, Wellington County stands alongside many municipalities, large and small, that have stated their opposition, including, among others: the City of Toronto, Waterloo Region, Orangeville, Mono, Shelburne, Dufferin County, Caledon, Mulmur, Kingston, Prince Edward County, Cornwall, City of Guelph, Newmarket, Lambton and Oakville.
It speaks volumes that Ontario’s municipal governments have warned that Bill 5 is undemocratic and will have irreversible consequences.
Jan Beveridge,
Elora