Premier Doug Ford’s third term has begun with yet another attempt to build lots of things quickly in Ontario. As has become the pattern, one of the Progressive Conservatives’ first moves after winning the 2025 election was to introduce sweeping omnibus legislation: Bill 5, or the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act.
Introduced in April, on the eve of the Easter long weekend, the bill proposes to overhaul a number of regulations to accelerate energy and infrastructure development, as well as mineral extraction projects the government says are of strategic importance to the province. The bill waters down rules that protect endangered species and natural heritage sites, maintain oversight of mining activities, require respect for constitutionally guaranteed Indigenous Rights and mandate environment assessments and protections.
Taken together, Bill 5 blunts the regulations that ensure construction and extraction don’t cause undue harm to land, water, wildlife and human health. It also empowers cabinet to create special economic zones where the laws that do remain can be circumvented to facilitate development.
While the province’s press release on Bill 5 is chock full of supportive quotes from mining executives and business organizations, the public response — from several Indigenous organizations and environmental groups — is one of deep concern.
Several First Nations of Treaty 9, which covers the mineral-rich Ring of Fire in northern Ontario that the government has promised to “unlock” as an economic hub, responded with an open letter to the province stating they would go to court over the omnibus bill, if necessary.
“These lands are not Ontario’s to do with as they wish. They are our ancestral lands. We have always been here and are going nowhere,” Donny Morris, Chief of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, said in the letter. “Whatever Ford and his government might want their base to think, nothing is happening up here without our consent.”
Read on for The Narwhal’s latest coverage of the omnibus development and mining bill.
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