Despite Indigenous protests, pleas for endangered species, and a late-night filibuster, Ontario’s Bill 5 received royal assent on June 5.
Known as the Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act, the Ontario government intends to use Bill 5 to fast track infrastructure projects such as mining and resource development. The bill allows the government to create “special economic zones” where qualifying projects will receive an accelerated permit process, bypassing certain environmental and archeological assessments.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford used his majority government to push the bill through despite public opposition. Ford cited U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff attacks on Ontario’s economy as a motivating factor for passing the bill quickly. But now that the bill has passed, several groups have sworn to overturn it.
“The government may have rammed this legislation through, but we have seen incredible opposition from Indigenous Peoples, environmental groups, farmers, labour organizations, and people from across the province. The hard work to overturn Bill 5 starts today,” said Tony Morris, Ontario Nature’s conservation policy and campaigns director, in a statement.
Prior to the passing of Bill 5, Ontario Nature created a petition to withdraw the act which received over 20,000 signatures. The environmental group points out that the bill significantly weakens provincial protections for endangered and threatened species, allowing development in ecologically sensitive areas that the government deems “special economic zones”.
Mining companies empowered by Ontario’s Bill 5 could put First Nations’ land and history at risk
Environmental Defence, another non-profit, says the bill’s power extends far beyond this, granting the provincial government the ability to exempt any person or business from provincial and municipal laws anywhere in the province for any reason.
“[L]egal and technical experts have made it clear that Bill 5 powers can be used for any purpose, and applied to laws with no direct connection to mining or nation-building infrastructure—from minimum wages and collective bargaining to protections against trespass and the contamination of water,” said Phil Pothen, a Toronto land use planning lawyer and the Ontario environment program manager for Environmental Defence, in a statement.
Indigenous communities are also concerned about their rights. The bill reduces consultation requirements with Indigenous Peoples, and the bill was passed without Indigenous consent. It doesn’t help that Ford has been eyeing Indigenous land. He’s made it clear that he plans to tap the Ring of Fire for its mining potential, a 5,000-square-kilometre resource-rich area near Hudson Bay that falls on Treaty 9 territory. The Friends of the Attawapiskat River have declared that the lands and waters of the Ring of Fire are protected under their natural law.
“If needed, First Nations will meet the government with resistance, on the ground, and in the courts, to protect our inherent, Treaty, and constitutionally protected rights,” said Ontario Regional Chief Abram Benedict, in a statement. “We have made every effort to work with this government and requested that Bill 5 be repealed, and that the process restart with First Nations directly involved. Instead, our requests have gone ignored, and Ontario has failed to adhere to the principles of meaningful consultation with First Nations, as required under Canadian constitutional law and numerous treaty agreements. The absence of such consultation underscores the government’s disregard for its responsibilities to First Nations as rights holders and partners.”
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Both Indigenous and environmental groups say they plan to look at whether Bill 5 violates the constitution, employing similar legal tactics used to fight Ford’s Greenbelt Act in 2022.
Finally, the NDP have been vocal about the Ontario government’s need to repeal Bill 5. NDP leader Marit Stiles has called the bill “Trump-style politics” and a “Ford-style power grab.” Prior to the bill passing, both NDP and Liberal MPPs filibustered in parliament into the early hours of May 29, delaying the bill.
Now that it’s passed, Stiles has called for the resignation of Greg Rickford, Ontario’s Minister of Indigenous Affairs and First Nations Economic Reconciliation.
“Minister Rickford had one job. To uphold free, prior, and informed consent. Instead, he rushed through legislation without proper consultation and ignored the voices of First Nations,” she said, in a statement. “Consultations don’t happen after a bill becomes a law. Instead of listening to rights holders, the government decided that they knew what was ‘best’. Instead of real dialogue, they silenced dissent. Instead of working together, they’ve created chaos, uncertainty, and disarray.”
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