THUNDER BAY – The Ontario NDP’s opposition to Bill 5 shows how the party doesn’t support mining when it should, Progressive Conservative legislators say.
“We are taking real action to support the North. The NDP can either get on board – or get out of the way,” Kevin Holland, the PC representing Thunder Bay-Atikokan, said Thursday in an email to Newswatch.
One member of the NDP caucus, Thunder Bay–Superior North MPP Lise Vaugeois, said that’s “nonsense.”
“We do support responsible development and always have,” she said.
“We’ve got members of our caucus who are multi-generational miners.
“We understand the importance of that industry, and we’re in support of reducing the time it takes to get through the permitting process, but not at the expense of First Nations, the environment or respect for existing laws.”
The partisan back-and-forth came a day after Premier Doug Ford’s government forced Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, through final reading in the legislature.
The bill will become law once it receives royal assent from Lt.-Gov. Edith Dumont.
Bill 5 has many parts, but its most talked-about component allows the province to designate “special economic zones” where provincial and municipal laws could be suspended for key projects so regulatory approvals can be fast-tracked.
Indigenous leaders have said that is an affront to their treaty and constitutional rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
“The honour of the Crown requires that the government honour First Nations as autonomous law-making authorities who have never ceded our control over our resources,” said a news release from Anishinabek Nation, a political organization for 39 First Nations including nations in the Robinson-Superior Treaty region.
Bill 5 is part of “a concerted plan to keep First Nations on the periphery,” the Anishinabek Nation release said.
Ontario must meet its duty to consult First Nations, Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler told a legislative committee last month.
“Our treaty is not red tape. Our rights are not red tape,” he told the committee.
NAN represents 49 First Nations on Treaty 9 and Treaty 5 land across northern Ontario, including communities in the mineral-rich Ring of Fire region.
Chief Merle Loon of Mishkeegogamang Ojibway Nation, which has membership in NAN, declared in a statement on Wednesday that his First Nation is “willing to take any necessary steps to protect our lands and our constitutionally protected rights.”
Loon called for the bill’s repeal and provincial consultation with First Nations before replacement legislation is brought forward.
Bill 5 is also opposed by environmental groups for replacing the Endangered Species Act with a Species Conservation Act that critics say lessens protection of wildlife.
The non-profit Ecojustice has called it “a direct assault on Ontario’s biodiversity and an attack on First Nations’ right to free, prior and informed consent.”
Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce has said the legislation is a necessary part of ensuring Ontario’s rich natural resources stay under domestic control.
In a statement released to news media Wednesday, he said the NDP’s opposition to Bill 5 is part of a pattern of not supporting the resource sector when it should.
“The Ontario NDP say they support northern workers and support mining. But when it comes time to act, they vote no – every time,” Lecce said.
“They opposed the Building More Mines Act, legislation that cuts red tape, accelerates approvals and upholds the Crown’s duty to consult. Now, they’re doing it again – standing in the way of growth, jobs and prosperity.”
Holland, who is an associate minister in the Ford cabinet, said as a former mayor of Conmee Township he has “heard how often the North has felt overlooked. That has changed.
“Our government has made historic investments across northern Ontario, including $1.3 billion for Thunder Bay–Atikokan.”
Vaugeois said she and her New Democrat colleagues supported the part of Bill 5 that had to do with reducing the time it takes to get mines approved.
But virtually all the rest of the massive bill is “massive overreach,” she said.
“The rest of the bill allows the government to overrule labour laws, environmental laws, First Nations treaty rights and any other law that Conservative ministers like Kevin Holland and Stephen Lecce find inconvenient.
“People voted for the premier to stand up to Trump, not to become Trump, giving himself and his ministers unlimited power to do whatever they want, wherever they want.”