By MPP Bobbi Ann Brady
The last week of the spring session at Queen’s Park was a lively one with active participation by thousands of people across the province, many from Haldimand-Norfolk, as the debate raged surrounding Bill 5, Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act. All Bill 5 has unleashed is a flurry of emotion aimed at the government – anger, disgust, disappointment. I have received more fuming emails, and phone calls on Bill 5 than any other issue since my 2022 election.
All of us in the opposition benches brought forward your voices, we used every tool at our disposal to urge the government to change course on Bill 5 to no avail. Although the government is now left to answer to the people of Ontario, it is the people of Ontario who are going to feel the impacts of this legislation.
In a last-ditch effort, I got the chance to stand in the Ontario Legislature to debate and challenge Bill 5. I summarized your anger and pointed it at this government. I told them our concerns about the Bill, which stem from the fact it would give the premier and his cabinet unprecedented power over the province, plus the ability to exempt individuals and corporations from provincial and municipal laws and bypass consultation with Indigenous groups. All of it is wrong.
Take for example the situation in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex where the premier told the people he had their backs and then turned his back on those same people. He promised an Environmental Assessment (EA) on the Dresden landfill site, and that became a broken promise considering the exemption for an EA specifically referencing Dresden in Bill 5.
I don’t buy the Ford government’s excuse that naming the Dresden landfill site has to do with President Trump. This is about friends of the premier. If this were about expanding capacity to deal with our own garbage, the government would have been wise to include all 800 plus active sites in this province within the legislation.
I think it is smelly that the only thing that changed between the premier telling the people of Dresden he had their backs to a year later turning his back is the ownership of the dump – two of them control Empire Communities—their signs are all over much of Haldimand County and they have now requested a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) to build a city of 40,000 at the Nanticoke Industrial Park.
Empire Communities has built over 10,000 homes in Ontario and its partners have generously donated to the PC Party over the past number of years, so you know the anxiety here in Haldimand-Norfolk that an MZO will be another curried favour. I will continue to do everything I can in my fight to ensure 40,000 people do not arrive in Nanticoke.
As you have directed me, I encourage the Ford Government to follow the best scientific knowledge and technology available when deciding how to govern and manage the province. People tell me quality of life is more important than short-term financial gain for a privileged few. We need some of the things addressed in Bill 5 such as landfills and minerals, but we can’t
develop them while we pollute and destroy the environment just to enrich those who directly profit from these projects.
We all expect better from this government. Bill 5 is a slippery slope; it sets a dangerous precedent. When the Legislative Assembly resumes on October 20th, I will again stand in the House and urge the Ford government to go back to the drawing board and do the right thing for Ontarians.
Bobbi Ann Brady is the MPP for Haldimand-Norfolk