Stratford citizens express concern over recently passed Bill 5

Representatives from Climate Momentum drop off handwritten postcards detailing Stratford residents’ opposition to Bill 5, the recently passed Protecting Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, at Perth-Wellington MPP Matthew Rae’s Stratford office on May 30.

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, passed its third reading and received royal assent at the Ontario legislature this month. Although much of the discourse surrounding it has been focused on communities in northern Ontario, some in Stratford believe that it has far reaching consequences – and that Stratford citizens should be concerned.

“There are elements of the act that dismantle environmental protection,” Bill James-Abra of Climate Momentum said. “That is part of it. The other part was the whole tone of the act is part of this process the government's doing of … dismantling local decision-making power and dismantling the voice of local communities to have some say in how development happens.

“If this law had been in place, I'm fairly confident when the Xinyi glass plant was proposed for Stratford, we wouldn't have had any say … it sounds over dramatic, but the law makes it possible for things like our Cooper site to be effectively taken over by the cabinet in Toronto for their hand picked developers to do what they please. It's offensive and it's wrong.”

As James-Abra indicated, Bill 5 amends and replaces the Endangered Species Act (once touted as the gold standard of conservation legislation) with the Species Conservation Act, but it also gives the province the special power to establish “special economic zones.” These zones can be designated anywhere in Ontario and can exempt a company, referred in the legislation as a “trusted proponent,” or project from complying with provincial laws, regulations or municipal bylaws, as determined by the province.

The Province of Ontario proposed the bill in the first place to “cut red tape and duplicative processes that have held back major infrastructure, mining and resource development projects.” It is intended to make the province more competitive on the global stage, streamlining processes, lowering costs, and shortening review times.

In a previous discussion on the 2025 provincial budget, Perth-Wellington MPP Matthew Rae reiterated his party’s stance on the bill and said it is necessitated by the uncertain times Ontario and Canada is in.

“Some have described it as an economic war with our U.S. colleagues, and we really need to get things built quickly in a timely manner,” Rae said. “Bill 5 in particular is looking at mines in northern Ontario. It takes 15 years on average in Ontario to build a mine. That takes five to seven years in the E.U. or Australia.”

Rae further said that every U.S. state has a version of a special economic zone and many countries use them as a planning tool.

“If you want investment to happen in the province, you need to facilitate investment … no argument here on that,” James-Abra said in response. “But it seems the government can't conceive of the possibility that you could do that collaboratively.”

Before the bill was officially adopted, Climate Momentum held a “postcard party” where they invited those interested to a drop-in party at the Falstaff Family Centre. There, they could write or sign custom postcards to be hand delivered to provincial representatives.

“We were really pleased,” James-Abra said about the turnout. “We ended up with more than 125 handwritten postcards. We had moms and dads coming in with their school-aged kids to write cards together. We had high school students dropping in. We had university students home for the summer break and everything from grandparents to grandkids writing cards.”

On May 30, Climate Momentum delivered those letters to Rae’s Stratford office. On Monday, after representatives partook in the Pride parade over the weekend, a few more were delivered as well.

Now that the bill has received royal ascent, keeping focus on it will be more difficult, James-Abra acknowledged, but his organization will consult with other larger advocacy groups to see what could be done moving forward.

On whether or not he has hope that the province will listen to criticism on the bill’s measures, he had his doubts – but he still had hope.

“There's an old proverb about how paths are made by walking,” he said. “There are places where today there are no paths, and in time there will be a path. And it will be made because people walked it. … I'm hopeful. I wouldn't be doing this work if I wasn't.”