It allows certain parties to be exempted from complying with provincial and municipal laws
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has called for the Ontario legislature to shoot down Schedule 9 of the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act (Bill 5).
Schedule 9, which enacts the Special Economic Zones Act 2025, permits the Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade to excuse “trusted proponents” and “designated projects” within “special economic zones” from complying with provincial and municipal laws.
“The catch? These three terms can mean pretty much anything, as they are not defined in the Act and are left entirely to Cabinet’s discretion,” said Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, CCLA’s fundamental freedoms director, in a statement.
McNicoll described the move as “alarming” and said that it allowed the government’s executive branch to “unilaterally do away with legal safeguards that protect vulnerable communities and Indigenous people, paving the way for corporations to bypass labour and environmental laws.”
McNicoll noted that the granting of exceptional decision-making power to the executive branch – including the ability to exempt others from following typical laws – ought to be the “democratic exception.” Such power was historically exercised under emergency power statutes, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The extraordinary power to circumvent the legislature and existing laws should only be utilized in well defined, exceptional circumstances. Even then, the exercise of such extraordinary emergency powers should be subject to checks and balances—such as clear and exigent statutory thresholds, a temporary duration, and some level of democratic oversight. Schedule 9 fails on all counts,” McNicoll said.
Bill 5 was brought by Minister of Energy and Mines Stephen Lecce. Its first reading was held on April 17, with the second reading commencing on April 29. The bill was referred to the Standing Committee on the Interior on May 6.
“When it comes to protecting our province and country’s economic sovereignty from President Trump’s attacks, it cannot be business as usual. We are unveiling a bold plan that ensures Canada is self-reliant, economically independent, and seizing every opportunity to grow our economy and stand on our own two feet,” Lecce said in an April 17 statement. “That is why we are taking decisive action to protect Canada’s natural resources from foreign adversaries, and our intent is to reduce government review time by 50 percent to get shovels in the ground.”
