The Prime Minister of Ontario Doug Ford indicates that Highway 401 could be designated as a special economic zone, allowing the province of acid its plans to build a transit and a traffic tunnel below, while avoiding a series of environmental and municipal laws.
The province is currently going through Bill 5,, Protect Ontario by unleashing our law on the economylegislation Introduced to accelerate mining projects in the North.
Part of the legislation allows the creation of special economic zones, the areas where the firm will be able to suspend provincial and municipal laws for certain projects. The projects that would be eligible for the large -scale powers were not made public when the bill was tabled.
Friday, Ford suggested that a list of priority plans He sent Prime Minister Mark Carney to the beginning of the month All of them would have exceptional status.
These projects are as follows: Develop the Fire Ring Rich in Resources at Thunder Bay; expand nuclear production stations in Ontario; Build a port on the high seas in James Bay; Massive expansion of the Go Train system; And build a tunnel highway under the 401 motorway.
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“Yes, we will do it, as we move forward,” said Ford, after being asked if he would designate the five projects as special economic zones.
“But that is only going, with the cooperation of the 444 municipalities, still with the First Nations communities of our province, especially with regard to critical minerals.”
The Ford office stressed that the consultation on the creation of special economic zones would continue during the summer – stressing that they will be created in regulation and not automatically land when the legislation adopts.
“We want to go to nation construction projects and ensure that this is done well,” said a spokesperson.
Of the five projects, the government’s 401 highway 401 tunnel project received the most decline from opposition politicians.
The plan is in its infancy and has been criticized by opponents such as A “half-cooked diagram and in the backpkin”. This would involve building a motorway under the Mississauga highway 401 in Markham and could cost tens of billions of dollars.
If it was designated as a special economic zone – as the Prime Minister suggested on Friday – the manufacturers of the route could be authorized to bypass the municipal statutes and the provincial laws which govern construction projects or the permit, for example.
The government recently published a request to tenderers to study how to build the route – a process that would currently take two years.
Opposition politicians have raised concerns concerning the scope of the power of special economic areas will give the government, qualifying the decision to “grasp of power” which lacks transparency.
Ontario’s NPD chief Marit Stiles said she was afraid that the areas are not limited to nation construction projects and will extend beyond without limits.
“We are not only talking about mining, we are talking about access to everyone-so each farmer, each Ontario should care about it,” she said on Wednesday. “What this government does is to adopt legislation to give them unhindered access to power.
“It is a power intake, creating areas without law.”
The legislation which will allow the creation of special economic zones should spend next week in the Ontario Legislative Assembly.
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