Guelph, Ont. council formally condemns resolution letter on bills 5 and 17

A Guelph, Ont., city councillor’s criticism of the Ford government’s controversial Bill 5 will be heard at Queen’s Park.

On Tuesday, city staff unanimously approved Ward 5 Coun. Leanne Caron’s resolution of bills 5 and 17.  The letter formally condemns the bills.

However, Caron said she’s not confident it’ll land in the hands of Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

“Bill 23 and Bill 124 did not get more housing built and those were bills in the last term of this government that were promised more housing. So, I just don’t believe that this government is listening, and this letter will fall on deaf ears,” Caron said.

Bill 5 received royal assent on June 5, and it includes legislation that gives the Ontario government the power to designate some areas as special economic zones to speed up economic development projects.

Bill 17, Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, was passed in May and focuses on the province’s goal of building more homes, infrastructure and businesses.

Caron said the bill doesn’t build economic growth, as it overlooks provincial laws and ignores environmental protections.

Critics argue Bill 5 takes away rights from Indigenous groups. Caron said the federal government has a role to play, including Dominique O’Rourke, a former councillor and current MP for Guelph.

“As a former city councillor, she (O’Rourke) was a champion for some of these protections and local land-use planning regulations that we’ve put in place to build great cities,” Caron said.

Global News attempted to contact O’Rourke, but she was unavailable to provide comment by the time of publication.

Mike Schreiner, MPP for Guelph and leader of the Green Party of Ontario, said he’s happy to see council pass the resolution against the bill.

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He refers to Bill 5 as a “power grab” by Ford.

“He’s essentially given himself and his hand-picked cabinet ministers the power to select hand-picked companies or projects who can operate in special economic zones and have laws applied or not applied to them,” Schreiner said.

Caron also believes Schreiner’s voice is being heard in Ottawa.

Schreiner said multiple groups of people are expressing their concerns over the bill, including Indigenous organizations, environmental and labour groups, and farmers, and he said it’s going to take that kind of citizen mobilization to put pressure on Ford to repeal Bill 5.

“People are mobilizing to oppose Bill 5 in the same way they mobilized to force the premier to backtrack on his plans to open the Greenbelt for development,” he said.

Moving forward, Caron said the city will take a wait-and-see approach and continue to focus on issues surrounding affordability and housing.

“There’s still a lot that this city needs to do to move forward on our city-building agenda and we’re going to need the province to be partners on that,” she said.