Ontario
Public Interest and Environment Groups Launch Constitutional Challenge Against Ford Government's Bill 5
On April 7, four public interest and environmental groups launched a constitutional challenge to Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, passed in June 2025 designed to speed up mining, infrastructure and resource projects by cutting "red tape," suspending laws that protect the environment and endangered species and creating "special economic zones," which the groups characterize as "lawless zones," where Cabinet can override legal rights and protections and accountability to the public.
Wildlands
League, Environmental Defence Canada, Friends of the Earth
Canada and
Democracy Watch filed their case at the Ontario Superior Court
of
Justice. Lindsay Beck, an Ecojustice lawyer representing the
organizations told media, "This case is about whether Ontario is
governed by laws passed
through public legislative debate or behind closed doors by
Cabinet members."
"The Premier and his cabinet now have unfettered power to exempt any person or business they like ("trusted proponents" and "designated projects") from any provincial or municipal law they choose, in as much of the province as they like ("special economic zones"), for any purpose, and based on whatever criteria they themselves decide," said Phil Pothen, Counsel with Environmental Defence.
Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch notes, "The law is dangerously undemocratic as it gives the Doug Ford cabinet unconstitutional, king-like powers to change any law without a review or vote of approval by Ontario's legislature."
The group argues that the law violates the Constitution by concentrating law-making authority in the Cabinet, bypassing the Legislature. They underscore that this undemocratic law will cause environmental harm, limit oversight, reduce public participation, sidestep labour and health and safety measures, and disregard environmental assessments in favour of projects linked to "trusted proponents."
Premier Ford has already indicated his intent to use these executive powers for infrastructure development including building a tunnel under Highway 401, expediting mining in the Ring of Fire and other locations in the province, building nuclear power generating stations, a deep water port in James Bay and a massive expansion of the Go Train System.
On March 23, the day of the opening of the Ontario legislature after a 14-week break, Ford announced that he was using the legislation to declare Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport a "special economic zone" in order to expropriate the City of Toronto's interest in the airport and expand it to allow jets to land. The City has and continues to oppose landing jets at the site. Ford wants to expand the main runway by hundreds of metres into Lake Ontario and, by invoking the legislation, to exempt the project from any provincial environmental, labour or other laws and void the need for approval by the city. The current agreement, signed in 1983 between the city, the Toronto Port Authority (a federal agency), and the federal government, bans jets. Ford says he has the support of the federal government for his plan.
Bill 5 and its federal counterpart Bill C-5, the Carney Liberal government's One Canadian Economy Act, aim at expediting major infrastructure and resource extraction projects which they deem to be in the national or provincial interest. Last year, nine Ontario First Nations launched a Charter challenge to Bill 5 and Bill C-5, asking the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for an injunction against these laws which they say are a "clear and present danger" to their hereditary and treaty rights and their right to be.
These laws are part of the rapid restructuring of the state demanded by the oligarchs who have taken over state power in Canada and are directing the cartel parties to subsidize them through handouts, tax incentives and other pay-the-rich schemes, laying claim to the resources and assets that belong to the Indigenous Peoples, Canadians and Quebeckers by right. These anti-democratic laws underscore the need for political renewal so that it's the workers and people who decide and together with Indigenous Peoples establish a modern Canada with a modern constitution that upholds rights and put the needs and claims of the people in first place.
(With files from Ecojustice, CBC and The Pointer)
This article was published in
Volume 56 Number 22 - April 22, 2026
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/TML2026/Articles/T560222.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca