In just 51 sitting days in 2025, the Ford government rammed through a series of sweeping omnibus bills — framed as a response to the threat posed by Donald Trump’s tariffs — that will slash environmental protections, centralize power, limit your ability to oppose developments in your towns and cities and parks, while also doubling our deficit to $13.5 billion.
Consider just a few examples.
Bill 5 https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-44/session-1/bill-5 will create special economic zones where projects can be exempted from most provincial and municipal laws. This bill has allowed travesties like the redevelopment of Ontario Place for private rather than public enjoyment, bypassing public input and environmental impact assessment. The bill also repeals the Endangered Species Act, eliminating protections of scores of species at risk.
Bill 17 https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-44/session-1/bill-17 weakens environmental safeguards while doing little to address housing affordability. It bars local municipal councils from setting green development standards, limits their ability to reduce flooding risks, improve air quality and respond to climate change and prevents communities from requiring more energy efficient homes.
Bill 24 https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-44/session-1/bill-24 allows the province to remove bike lanes in Toronto and restricts municipalities from building new ones. At a time of growing congestion, emissions and public health challenges, Queen’s Park interference in local transportation decisions is hard to justify.
Bill 26 https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-44/session-1/bill-26 allows the Environment Minister to reclassify provincial parks with little consultation with the public or First Nations, favouring tourism over protecting natural spaces for the public and endangered species habitat.
Bill 46 https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-44/session-1/bill-46 allows trees in Crown forests to be removed for mining and road construction with few limits or standards.
Bill 60 https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-44/session-1/bill-60 will open the door to privatizing drinking water and wastewater services.
And Bill 68 https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-44/session-1/bill-68 will reduce 36 local conservation authorities to seven regional bodies. While the rationale for consolidation is cost-saving, the result will limit local input into the preservation of our wetlands and parks and open them up to development. Even more concerning, the bill exempts the government from setting greenhouse gas reduction targets and climate change planning altogether.
Economic development and environmental sustainability are not mutually exclusive. Renewable energy sources like solar and wind now deliver electricity at a much lower cost than fossil fuels. So why is the Ford government investing heavily in one of the most polluting energy options — gas plants — while neglecting cheaper, faster to deploy renewables such as wind, solar and battery storage?
Couple this with land-use policies that increasingly take decision-making away from municipalities and allow government ministers to decide, and the stage is set for backroom deals.
Ontarians don’t have to accept this zero-sum game offered by the Ford government. We have the right to be consulted and we don’t have to sacrifice our quality of life, which relies on respect for nature and a healthy environment.
Ontarians can and should make it clear that they expect their government to protect both their economy and their environment. Since 2000, California, the fourth largest economy in the world, has managed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent and increase its GDP by 78 per cent. We should be doing the same.
If the Ford government can do this much damage in 51 days, just think of what 2026 will bring. We all need to tell our MPPs that building our economy sustainably is the better choice now and for the future.
You can make a difference:
Contact your MPP by phone or send a short letter and let them know you are aware and concerned that these bills are reducing your rights to have a say in the development of your community
Support local environmental and democratic organizations that are amplifying your concerns through donations and volunteering
Use your voice and your vote to tell the Ontario government that you are not willing to sacrifice your children’s future by limiting environmental hearings and assessments so that developers can have a free hand
Demand that the government restore the role of an independent Environmental Commissioner (which Doug Ford abolished in 2019) so that we are able to maintain oversight and ask the hard questions
If decision-making continues to be concentrated in ministers’ offices rather than in the legislature and local communities, our children and grandchildren will pay the price.