ONTARIO’S BILL 5 RECEIVES ROYAL ASSENT ** RADICAL OPPOSITION ASSURES US IT’S A GOOD THING **

ONTARIO’S BILL 5 RECEIVES ROYAL ASSENT ** RADICAL OPPOSITION ASSURES US IT’S A GOOD THING ** THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF ONTARIO, the Honourable Edith Dumont, granted royal assent to the Ford government’s new mining legislation on June 5, officially passing it into law at Queen’s Park on Thursday. Bill 5, known as Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, will create special economic zones where certain projects can bypass various provincial laws. The bill is a positive step forward for this province as it will permit major infrastructure and resource extraction projects to happen faster by reducing delays and eliminating duplication in the approvals process. Most observers see this as an urgent response to the economic threats posed by U.S. President Donald Trump and his tariffs. In addition, the bill will reduce the regulatory shackles that hinder many companies from operating effectively within northern Ontario. Premier Doug Ford has said the province must focus on accelerating infrastructure projects, particularly mines, as it finds itself in a "critical time" against U.S. tariffs. "We just want to get projects moving forward as quickly as possible," he said at Queen's Park last week. "There's no longer time to sit around and wait 10 years as we do an environmental assessment and everything else." He assured Ontarians that his government is "going to make sure that we always do environment assessments” but went on to say, "I'm not against it, I'm just against taking five years to get one done.” Ford has cited the need to move more quickly on mining places such as the mineral-rich Ring of Fire in northern Ontario in order to strengthen the province’s economy. Of course, the need to anticipate pushback from radical interest groups and others is paramount, and when asked as to whether he would use the Notwithstanding Clause in the face of any future court decisions that might try to deem Bill 5 as unconstitutional, the Premier said he would “cross that bridge” when he comes to it. As part of the process still to come, the Province has committed to consult with Indigenous leaders over the summer months, and not designate any areas as special economic zones until that process is complete. Three First Nations have signed various agreements already in an effort to help the province build roads to the affected regions, and to develop the areas that connect to the provincial highway system. Of course, as one might expect, a host of other First Nations leaders have said they won’t cooperate whatsoever under any conditions. Dozens flew in from the far north to Queen’s Park for the purpose of watching the Legislature pass Bill 5, and to rain down jeers upon politicians as they passed the bill into law. Many were forced to leave the chamber as a result. Of course, the opposition doesn’t stop there, as radical environmentalists and those claiming to champion what they see as civil liberties attempt to capture as much air time as they can among national and international media outlets. Shouts of sanctimonious outrage could also be heard from various unions who see certain labour laws as somehow under threat due to the desire by the Province to simply speed up necessary approvals. A glance at the Op-Ed pages among major newspapers will show letters-to-the-editor that offer up typical opposition party talking points that try to accuse the Ford government of overriding all the rules – meaning whatever the opposition parties are demanding on any given day. Apocalyptic pronouncements of so-called underfunded schools, crumbling higher education, hallway medicine, and even the proliferation of what has become known as ‘homelessness’ are being used to create an atmosphere of what this columnist identifies as simple comic relief. Ontario’s Minister of Energy & Mines, Stephen Lecce, described the intent of Bill 5 in very clear terms when he told the Legislature, “We have a ‘one project, one process’ framework. It’s designed to deliver coordination…because it takes thousands of days to get to yes. We brought forward this bill to introduce benchmarks on government, and government alone, to set service standards and certainty…There are billions of dollars of investment that left Ontario, businesses that stalled or projects that never got off the ground because the Opposition designed a system to halt it to ‘no’ …We know 15 years is too long. We know 15 years to open a mine is unacceptable. We know it as amongst the slowest in the world.” On the matter of Indigenous participation, the Minister went on say, “Many Indigenous nations and chiefs have said to us, “Look, we want to buy in, but not many entities or people or businesses or First Nation governments have access to hundreds of millions of dollars to buy into these equity projects,” which is a fair concern, and which thus disabled their ability to be equity partners or to own the project. So, in this most recent budget our Premier and Minister of Finance tabled a plan to put $3 billion for equity participation on the table.” In contrast, perhaps the most glaring example of comic relief came from the Green Party’s Aislinn Clancy, who offered these intelligent remarks, “I’d like to say a few words about what this bill means to me, my community, the people who care about the planet, because there is no planet B. We try to go to Mars all the time and see what it’s like up there; we haven’t found life, so we have to really work hard to protect the planet that we have. And as Justin Bieber would like to say to the Premier, it’s not too late to say sorry and rescind this bill.” But she didn’t end there. “I think this is our Amazon rainforest. This is our Avatar movie. Too many movies have been produced right now that show that when we put a price on the minerals without consideration for the future of humanity and the destruction caused in the pursuit of excess profit. So this is not about trying to survive; these are not people who are just trying to make do; this is about excess profit of the super-wealthy who are going to be capitalizing on this.” One could be forgiven for thinking those comments were in fact written by a preschooler rather than an elected member of the Legislature, however I can assure you they came right out of Hansard. In the meantime, expect a lot of saber-rattling from various Indigenous groups within the province, as well as a host of creative fiction coming from environmentalists attempting to forward their de-growth agenda. Let the summer follies begin.