Ontario's Progressive Conservatives aren't showing any signs of wavering in their effort to pass their first contentious bill since winning re-election earlier this year, despite the pushback they've received.
On Tuesday, 70 PC MPPs voted to forward Bill 5, Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce's legislation titled the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, to the parliamentary committee study stage. All of the 43 MPPs who aren't members of Premier Doug Ford's governing caucus — including New Democrats, Liberals, Greens and one Independent — and were present for the vote opposed the bill's advancement.
If passed into law, Bill 5 would provide the provincial government with a new power to designate areas as "special economic zones," giving the government of the day the ability to exempt projects in them from requirements of any other provincial laws or regulations. It would also enable the province to designate "trusted proponents" of projects, giving them similar exemptions. Premier Doug Ford's government has said it would use these powers to enable companies to more quickly access minerals from the resource-rich Ring of Fire in northern Ontario.
Bill 5 would also repeal Ontario's Endangered Species Act and replace it with a new law that environmental groups argue offers weaker protection and allow the government to limit foreign actors' participation in the energy sector, mining industry, critical infrastructure projects and more.
The Ford government has framed Bill 5 as being necessary in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and the larger threat he poses to the Canadian economy.
Arguments against the legislation made by opposition parties have included criticism that it's heavy-handed and could lead to the government infringing on the rights of First Nations. Some Indigenous leaders have raised similar concerns, including Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler, who after watching MPPs debate the bill at the legislature on Monday, said he sees the legislation as "a direct attack on our nation (and) on our treaty."
While speaking to reporters on Tuesday after voting in favour of advancing Bill 5, the energy and mines minister dismissed concerns over it, saying that what he's proposed is what voters re-elected the PCs to do. "We actually rendered an election on this," Lecce said. "We went directly to the people of Ontario, saying, 'Do you support a plan to accelerate resource development in a responsible manner?'"
The Standing Committee on the Interior, which, like all of the committees at Queen's Park, is PC-controlled under Ford's party's latest majority, will soon start its study of Bill 5.
At the committee stage of a bill's passage process, stakeholders who could be affected by the legislation and experts in the areas it addresses are typically invited to answer questions about it from MPPs, who then return it to the house untouched or with amendments. A committee's study of a bill can take as little as a few meetings over a few days, or go on for weeks or even longer, depending on what its members decide. Once a committee returns a bill to the house, all MPPs then have another chance to debate it before voting on whether or not to make it law.
Clarification: This story was updated at 7:51 a.m. on May 7 to include that Bill 5 would replace the Endangered Species Act with a new law.
