Doug Ford pushes through rapid development law despite objections of First Nations
Amid warnings of highway blockades and other civil disobedience from First Nations, Premier Doug Ford's government passed its controversial Bill 5 to fast-track development of mines and infrastructure in the fight against U.S. tariffs.
'We need to get moving, folks,' Ford said Wednesday before the vote on the Protect Ontario By Unleashing Our Economy Act, which creates 'special economic zones' where local and provincial rules can be bypassed — and which opposition parties dub 'no-law' zones.
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National Observer
2 hours ago
- National Observer
Prince Rupert gas pipeline cleared to keep environmental permit indefinitely
The Prince Rupert gas pipeline project is 'substantially started' and will keep its valid environmental certificate for the life of the pipeline, the BC Environmental Assessment Office has ruled. The Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline is jointly owned by the Nisga'a Nation and Western LNG, but other First Nations and environmentalists say the decision favours corporate interests over climate commitments and Indigenous rights. Tara Marsden, sustainability director for the Gitanyow hereditary chiefs, said the decision was not unexpected, but still 'damaging and daunting.' She said the province frequently bends or breaks its own laws and regulations to accommodate PRGT, undermining the integrity of the environmental review process. 'This is absolutely not in the interests of Gitanyow and many other nations who have expressed concern,' Marsden said. 'It's going to be a significant reversal of the climate policy of this government." The BC government has legislated targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But according to critics, pursuing additional LNG and pipeline projects will undercut any progress made by adding significant new emissions that were not considered in the province's climate plans. Marsden said the government is acting without responsibility, forcing First Nations to fight in court because it doesn't respect consultation, Indigenous rights, UNDRIP or true consent — and the decision was politically and economically driven, not based on policy, law or sound science. 'This is absolutely not in the interests of Gitanyow and many other nations who have expressed concern,' Tara Marsden, sustainability director for the Gitanyow hereditary chiefs. 'It's going to be a significant reversal of the climate policy." 'This government can now do whatever it pleases with no accountability,' Marsden said. 'First Nations are left to fight for these things on the ground and in the courts.' She said the report by the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) — the agency tasked with technical review — was 'very slim,' noting that Gitanyow's own submission was likely twice as long. Janelle Lapointe, senior advisor at the David Suzuki Foundation and member of Stellat'en First Nation, said the approval casts significant doubt on the province's willingness to meet its climate targets, respect Indigenous rights and title, and even follow its own policy on determining whether a project has had a 'substantial start.' The keyword — substantial start — is critical because under BC's Environmental Assessment Act, a project's environmental certificate will expire unless enough real, physical work has been completed on the ground before a set deadline — in this case, November 25, 2024. According to the EAO report, the PRGT pipeline was considered 'substantially started' because the company cleared 42 km of pipeline route, built nine permanent bridges, upgraded or built 47 km of access roads, and set up work areas before the deadline. The company also spent about $584 million on the project since 2013. The concerns related to greenhouse gas emissions and incomplete permits were not part of the decision and was mainly based on the physical work completed on the ground. 'If PRGT was really a good project, it wouldn't need a decade-old permit, quiet approvals, and a government bending the rules to push it through,' Lapointe said. She said since the original environmental assessment certificate was issued in 2014, lands, waterways, and ecology have only become more vulnerable due to continued extraction, corporate greed, and the accelerating effects of climate change. Lapointe said the project will cross hundreds of fish-bearing streams and rivers in a watershed that her community depends on. The government is again refusing to ensure the project won't harm their ecosystems, especially salmon — a key species important to their culture and vital to the local economy, she said. 'The province has failed to address the concerns of the Indigenous nations asserting their rights to protect our territory. It sets a very dangerous precedent,' Lapointe said. She pointed out that newly passed Bill 15 and the PRGT approval highlight a troubling trend — the provincial government is making it easier for corporations to move projects forward, while making it difficult for Indigenous nations to exercise their rights and oppose developments that threaten their territories. 'Are they going to allow outdated permits from 2014 to be treated as more legitimate than the rights of sovereign nations? I am left wondering, why is our province bending over backwards to hand over critical energy infrastructure to American billionaires?' Lapointe said. Christina Smethurst, communications head at Dogwood BC, a Victoria-based non-profit, non-partisan citizen action group, said while the EAO issued the approval, there has been no clear public statement or ownership from elected government officials about the decision, with significant environmental, Indigenous rights and economic implications. "The BC NDP have abandoned any semblance of caring about climate change,' Smethurst said. "Where is the government on this? Who of our elected officials will take responsibility for making this decision?' Marsden said Gitanyow is preparing legal and other actions, and the fight to protect their lands will continue. Lapointe said they would follow Gitanyow's lead in the ongoing opposition to the pipeline. Marsden also challenged the narrative that this project would help Canada's energy independence. 'This isn't about getting out from under the thumb of Americans. It's actually about enriching people who are in Trump's inner circle,' Marsden said.
National Observer
2 hours ago
- National Observer
Ford government proposes major rollback of Blue Box recycling rules
The Ford government has quietly proposed major changes to Ontario's Blue Box recycling program — changes advocates say will increase pollution, reduce accountability for waste producers and place more costs on renters and municipalities. The new rules would delay key recycling targets by five years, giving producers until 2031 to meet recovery goals for materials like paper, plastic, metal, glass and beverage containers. Those targets had been set to take effect in 2026. The proposed changes would eliminate rules requiring producers to collect packaging waste from apartments, long-term care homes, retirement homes and schools without municipal pickup. Beverage companies would no longer be responsible for containers consumed outside the home. The plan would also allow producers to burn non-recyclable plastic in incinerators or cement kilns and still count it as recycling. The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks says the changes are intended to manage 'higher than expected cost growth' and ensure a 'stable and sustainable' blue box system during the province's transition to full producer responsibility. The government would allow producers up to 15 per cent of recycling targets to be met by burning non-recyclable plastic waste in incinerators or cement kilns. Under the province's Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, producers — including brand owners, retailers and importers — are required to manage recycling programs for packaging and single-use items. The current changes would weaken the 2021 regulations that aimed to shift this responsibility away from municipalities and onto the companies that create waste. Critics say the proposal marks a dramatic reversal of more than a decade of progress on waste reduction and recycling in the province. Big retailers and consumer brands have been lobbying the Ford government to weaken Ontario's Blue Box rules, claiming recycling costs are too high. Karen Wirsig, senior program manager at Environmental Defence, said the changes would increase plastic pollution, promote incineration and burden communities with more garbage, all while letting major producers — like grocery chains and beverage companies — off the hook. 'The government is betraying Ontarians by seeking to reverse requirements that would have reduced single-use and unrecyclable plastics and to delay enforcement of these — now weakened — rules for another five years,' Wirsig said. The Ford government's proposal comes just a day after it passed the controversial Bill 5, which also fast-tracks large waste facility approval under the claim that Ontario is facing a landfill crisis. 'From the moves this week, it is clear that the premier and the government think more garbage, more dumps and more waste-burners are good for Ontario,' Wirsig said, calling it a coordinated shift toward deregulation that benefits producers and the waste industry at the expense of environmental health and ordinary Ontarians. The government also proposes slashing the recycling target for flexible plastic packaging, such as food wrappers and plastic bags, from 25 per cent to just five per cent. The ministry says industry stakeholders argue these materials are costly, hard to recycle and often contaminate other recyclables. Komal Habib, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo and expert in industrial ecology, said delaying recovery targets by five years is excessive and risks weakening Ontario's circular economy goals. 'It's too long of a transition time to allow producers to plan and make investments for collection and recycling activities,' Habib said. On the decision to exclude multi-residential buildings and public spaces from producer collection responsibilities, Habib said it could have serious consequences. These sites produce a growing share of urban waste, especially in cities like Toronto and Waterloo — leaving them out of the system could hamper progress toward circular economy goals. Ontario is still dumping billions of bottles and cans, while other provinces profit from a deposit-return recycling system. Despite 81 per cent of Ontarians supporting such a system, last year the Ford government scrapped the non-alcoholic drink container deposit-return program, citing cost concerns 'for small businesses and families,' without providing any estimates. Opposition slams industry influence Big retailers and consumer brands have been lobbying the Ford government to weaken Ontario's Blue Box rules, claiming recycling costs are too high. Last year, in a joint letter, several Ontario municipal organizations raised concerns about industry lobbying for changes to the province's Blue Box Regulation, warning it could undermine the goals of extended producer responsibility and shift costs back onto municipalities. Ontario NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns said the Ford government's decision to delay recycling targets and loosen producer obligations is a clear example of corporate influence overriding public interest. He argued that big companies have had more than a decade to develop less wasteful packaging but failed to act. Tabuns said the idea behind extended producer responsibility was to force innovation by making polluters pay, but the changes signal a retreat from that principle. He added that the government's decision to allow incineration to count toward recycling targets would worsen climate emissions and increase toxic pollution. Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the government is effectively dismantling a system that was meant to make waste producers accountable and encourage less packaging waste. Instead, he warned, the rollback will lead to more garbage, higher costs for taxpayers and missed opportunities to build a circular economy. Ontario should be moving toward strict producer responsibility, zero waste targets, and greater inclusion of commercial and multi-residential buildings in recycling programs, not backing away from them, he said. A more effective approach would be to reduce the delay to no more than two years and push producers to invest in infrastructure, Habib suggested. She also urged the government to fund academic research to evaluate whether current recovery targets are realistic and sustainable.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
In the news today: Liberals set to table internal trade bill
Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed… Liberals set to table internal trade bill The Liberal government is poised to table landmark legislation to break down internal trade barriers and increase labour mobility within Canada. The government has put a bill on the House of Commons notice paper that could potentially be tabled as early as today. Prime Minister Mark Carney has pledged to break down internal trade barriers by Canada Day to create one economy — although the time left on the parliamentary calendar suggests the legislation will not gain Royal Assent by the time the House rises for the summer. Several other provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, have also tabled such legislation to remove interprovincial barriers to the trade of goods across the country. It comes against a backdrop of U.S. President Donald Trump roiling the country's economy with stop-and-go tariffs in an escalating trade war — and as Carney has been engaged in behind-the-scenes talks with Trump on trade. Here's what else we're watching… Wildfire evacuees take refuge in Niagara Falls Some Manitoba residents who have taken refuge in Niagara Falls, Ont., after fleeing wildfires raging in their province say they're grateful for the hospitality but worry they won't have a home to return to once the flames die down. Kelly Ouskun says he saw so much fire and smoke along the highway on the drive from his family's home in Split Lake to Thompson, about 145 kilometres away, that he felt 'nauseated' and his eyes hurt. The family flew to Niagara Falls from there and he says they've now settled in at one of the five downtown hotels taking in evacuees, while hanging on to hope that what he's heard about his home — that it's still standing and intact — is true. More than 18,000 people have been displaced due to the wildfires in Manitoba since last week, including 5,000 residents of Flin Flon near the Saskatchewan boundary, along with members from at least four First Nations. Some residents from Pimicikamak Cree Nation, east of Flin Flon, were taken to Niagara Falls on Sunday, with more arriving since then. Wildfires included in G7 leaders summit planning Security officials at the G7 leaders summit in Kananaskis say plans are in place, including the possibility of evacuations, if wildfires become a serious threat later this month. Kananaskis, located about an hour west of Calgary, is in the foothills and front ranges of the Rocky Mountains. Its western edge borders Banff National Park and the Alberta-B.C. boundary. Its remote location is considered to be ideal from a security standpoint for the meeting of the leaders from Canada, the United States, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and Italy, as well as the European Union from June 15 to 17. But with an explosion of wildfires in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and in northern Alberta, a contingency plan is in place if the situation moves south. 'Wildfire has been part of our planning since the summit was announced here in Alberta,' said RCMP Chief Supt. David Hall, an event security director for the Integrated Safety and Security Group, in a recent briefing. StatCan to publish May jobs numbers Statistics Canada is set to reveal employment numbers for May today. A poll of economists provided by LSEG Data & Analytics heading into today's release calls for a loss of 12,500 jobs last month and for the unemployment rate to rise a tenth of a percentage point to seven per cent. Canada's unemployment rate rose two ticks to 6.9 per cent in April amid a gain of 7,400 jobs. That month's figures got a one-time boost in hiring tied to the federal election but also showed a contraction in manufacturing as the tariff dispute with the United States started to bite. The Bank of Canada will be watching the labour market data closely just two days after it left its benchmark interest rate on hold for a second straight time. Fans react to criticism of Gretzky over Trump ties It wasn't long ago that some Canadians were up in arms about hockey legend Wayne Gretzky's ties to U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. But as the Edmonton Oilers skate their way through the Stanley Cup final, hockey fans say it's time to let bygones be bygones. The statue was vandalized in March and smeared with what appeared to be and strongly smelled like feces. On Wednesday, a hip-high metal fence was up around the bronze figure. Gretzky, the Ontario-born hockey star who led the Oilers to four Stanley Cup victories in the 1980s, recently drew the ire of Canadians for his public support of Trump, who has repeatedly expressed his desire for Canada to join the U.S and become its 51st state. Darren Rogers, a Gretzky fan since the Oilers' inception into the NHL in 1979, said Gretzky's leadership led the team to win multiple Stanley Cups. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6, 2025.
