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EDITORIAL: Bill 5 recklessly endangers Ontario (May/June 2025)

July 15th, 2025 · No Comments

The Ontario legislature has now passed Bill 5—the Protect Ontario by Unleashing the Economy Act. The bill allows cabinet, not the legislature, to establish Special Economic Zones (SEZ) where provincial or municipal regulations governing the environment, public health, labour, human rights, planning, and building would simply not apply. The flying monkeys who comprise Premier Doug Ford’s cabinet are sure to grant him these lawless spaces, wherever he asks for them. This is dangerous and unprecedented legislative overreach.

In his last term as premier, Ford tried unsuccessfully to get his family friend, Ron Taverner, appointed as OPP Commissioner, even though Taverner did not meet the qualifications for the job. When called out for this clear conflict of interest Ford said, “I have final sign-off on everything in this province.” It’s that attitude that underpins Bill 5, a sort of authoritarian populism. Even though he was elected by less than 20 per cent of eligible voters (43 per cent of the popular vote with a 45.4 per cent voter turnout), Ford appears to see his win as a mandate for an electoral dictatorship. In this line of thinking, he is entitled to exercise absolute power for the duration of his mandate. 

Bill 5 is indeed just a power grab. For all his bluster in the last provincial election about seeking a mandate to do battle with President Trump’s tariffs, it appears it has all come down to a bid to be more like him. The premier has no vision for the Province of Ontario but he is hell bent on tearing down statutes and regulations that help define our society. It’s as if he is in a perpetual state of hating government whilst ostensibly leading it.

Bill 5 is a clear threat to Indigenous rights. The first SEZ will likely be located in the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario where Indigenous peoples have treaty-protected land rights.  Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 does not recognize the unilateral power of the Ontario cabinet, and Ontario is required to meaningfully consult.

The legislation repeals the Endangered Species Act and elements of the Environmental Assessment Act. Scientists, municipalities, and Indigenous leaders throughout the province protested when the omnibus bill was introduced, but their voices were ignored. The bill was amended to include “consultations” with impacted Indigenous groups, but this is seen as a vague afterthought. Arguably, Bill 5 itself ought to have been the subject of such consultations. As a result, the province is probably already in breach of the Constitution.

The bill expressly exempts the Ontario Place redevelopment from the Environmental Bill of Rights, 1993 and would extend legal and regulatory exemptions to the controversial Highway 413 project and the Bradford Bypass. The premier has said he will use it to ram through his bizarre scheme to build a tunnel under the 401.

This legislation changes the Ontario Heritage Act by exempting archaeological requirements at significant Indigenous and settler sites. Found a longhouse or native burial site while constructing Highway 413? Just keep that bulldozer rolling along on Ontario’s supposed path to prosperity.

Is this the best that “Captain Canada” has to offer the people of Ontario?

Labour standards would evaporate within a SEZ. Workplace health and safety standards and minimum wages would simply not exist. Want to set up a sweatshop with child labour? Come to Ontario; it’s your place to grow. It’s a potential two-tiered labour system, where life inside a SEZ, where human rights are optional, could resemble the dystopian reality of a Mad Max film. 

The Unleashing the Economy Act is supposed to deliver Ontario into some vaguely defined promised land, but it’s not a vision; it’s a threat. And what Doug Ford has demonstrated is that it’s not just Donald Trump we should fear.

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Tags: Annex · Editorial · Opinion