Hidden in Bill 257, Supporting Broadband and Infrastructure Expansion Act, 2021 a bill that is clearly supposed to be about broadband internet, is Schedule 3 – legislation that would change the law to make Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZOs) anywhere outside the Greenbelt exempt from Ontario’s basic rules of good land-use planning, the Provincial Policy Statement. The government is trying to give itself more power to allow development anywhere that developers want. This bill would also make that power retroactive, in hopes that MZOs that were illegal when they were issued – like the one you may have heard about that was issued for the Lower Duffins Creek wetland – would be allowed to go forward.
Write to Minister Steve Clark, and your MPP, to demand that they remove Schedule 3 from Bill 257? Comments must be sent today, Friday March 26, 2021.
You can use this simple contact form organized by Environmental Defence or you can write your own message.
Your message can be very simple:
“I request the removal of Schedule 3 from Bill 257.”
Send your message directly to Minister Steve Clark and your local MPP. You may wish to copy the mayor and council of your municipality.
- Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing steve.clark@pc.ola.org
- Will Bouma, MPP Brantford-Brant will.bouma@pc.ola.org
To learn more, read this joint statement by Ontario Nature, Environmental Defence and Ecojustice.