Bill Walker’s recent defence of MZOs is disingenuous by half. He wants us to believe they are just another planning tool used by previous governments to speed along such worthy projects as nursing homes and affordable housing.
They are not. MZOs are Ministerial Zoning Orders and they are just that. The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing can order a change in a municipality’s zoning plan over the objections of everyone including conservation authorities and the public.
Never mind that a project contravenes a municipality’s Official Plan. Never mind that it will impair a significant wetland or tromp on the habitat of endangered species. If the Ontario Government wants a warehouse and production studio built over wetlands without consultation (as it does in Pickering) it will order it.
MZOs have been around for a long time, but even the Liberals tread lightly, issuing only a handful over their 15 years in power. The Tories have issued some 40 MZOs in the past 3 years. Mr Ford went out of his way to protect this beast in legislation – in the ‘Covid Economic Recovery Act’ (an omnibus bill that, among other things, violated the requirements of the Environment Bill of Rights) and the ‘Protect, Support and Recover from COVID-19 Act’ (which hobbles conservation authorities).
It is probably no coincidence that many of the projects the Conservatives have ordered up will benefit their donors and an assortment of Tory hangers on.
For example, some of the MZOs will pave the way for stretches of Ford’s next big, bad idea – another highway corridor north of Toronto.
For the sake of saving maybe a minute of driving time, the 413 will plow through farmers’ fields, fill in more wetlands and pave the way for the kind of suburban sprawl that has ruined much of the GTA and cut people off from the environment.
But, as the National Observer and Toronto Star discovered, it will mean millions in the pockets of developers who also happen to be big donors of Mr Ford’s party.
This is the very definition of pork barrel politics.
The Tories say they are just responding to requests from municipalities for the MZOs. Except it appears it’s the developers and the Ford Government that are suggesting that municipalities make the ask.
Don’t worry, say the Tories. We’re not applying them in the Greenbelt – as if that’s a consolation for those of us outside that boundary or as though damage to ecosystems outside the Greenbelt doesn’t leak into the Greenbelt.
It has taken us a long time to come to a consultative process that takes into account the interests of government, the public and the environment. This is just one of the problems with majority governments – they can, in an instant, undo decades of careful consideration for the sake of a few dollars more.
David McLaren
Neyaashiinigmiing
