THUNDER BAY - The provincial government is looking to restart the Ontario economy, but a new bill introduced by the Ford government is being criticized for including changes that the opposition says has nothing to do with recovering from the pandemic.
On Wednesday, the Ford government introduced the COVID-19 Recovery Act, new legislation it says will help restart jobs and strengthen communities.
“It lays the foundation for a strong recovery for Ontario, a foundation for jobs and development that will strengthen our communities and create opportunities for people,” Premier Doug Ford said during his daily media briefing on Wednesday.
Ford said the bill, if passed, will get key infrastructure projects built fast and create more jobs by cutting red tape and allow businesses to adapt to a new environment, helping communities by ensuring they have the tools to provide critical services, including allowing municipalities and boards to continue to hold meetings electronically, and protecting consumers, modernizing services, and improving the education and justice systems.
“I will always stand with our municipalities,” Ford said. “My government is at the table. We are in active negotiations with the federal government to get municipalities the support they need. We need the prime minister’s help. No province, no community can do this alone.”
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark, who introduced the bill, said municipalities will be a key partner in getting the economy back up and running.
“Throughout the pandemic, we have worked with our municipal partners to ensure they have the support they need and the flexibility to use it,” Clark said. “We provided them with the ability to hold meetings electronically and we think that makes good sense even after the COVID-19 pandemic is over.”
But the bill is not without criticism. Leader of the opposition, Andrea Horwath, issued a statement following the announcement, saying the bill does nothing to help those most impacted by the pandemic, including those living in long-term care, small businesses, First Nations, and daycares.
“This bill doesn’t include a single change to safeguard long-term care residents, improve the quality of care, or increase the staff wages,” Horwath said.
“This bill does not include a single dime for small and medium-sized businesses still struggling. It doesn’t add even one more child care space, or increase the number of classrooms, teachers or education workers so all students can return to school safely.”
Horwath added that it does not include money for municipalities, who are struggling financially due to the pandemic.
“Nor does it include anything at all to support First Nations communities, which are still struggling to keep the virus at bay and don’t even have clean water, let alone equitable access to health care,” she said.
“I’m worried Doug Ford is using COVID-19 recovery as cover to plow ahead with changes that have nothing at all to do with recovering from this pandemic.”
Ford was questioned about aspects of the bill, including changes to the education system, the justice system, and environmental assessments and how they are related to the COVID-19 recovery.
“Schools are part of COVID recovery,” Ford said. “The justice system, the backlog is staggering, is part of COVID recovery. Everything is about COVID recovery. Making sure we move forward. It’s about COVID recovery.”
“We have a very limited legislative calendar and we want to ensure we have the biggest impact for Ontarians,” Clark added. “We have a comprehensive bundle of legislative amendments that deal with a number of sectors that will help get our communities back on track.”
Similar concerns were brought forward regarding proposed changes to environmental assessments, which would give cabinet power over deciding whether a project would have to undergo an assessment before moving forward.
Ford said the Environmental Assessment Act is more than 50 years old and the province cannot see million dollar project go somewhere else because of lengthy assessments.
“Our number one priority is to protect the environment,” Ford said. “Our number one priority is never to go into the Green Belt. Our promise is to make sure we have clean lakes, clean rivers, and clean air.”
“But we can’t wait for six years for job recovery and not give companies certainty on where they are going to invest. We’re losing jobs. We aren’t going to dodge EAs, we are going to make sure we strengthen them and to do them quicker and smarter.”
“We are taking the lens of looking at major projects and their impact to the environment to smaller projects that might have no impact on the environment,” Clark added.
