Special economic zones will cause the next green -like scandal, Ford's opponents claim

A legal template that aims to give cabinet ministers the authority to create “special economic zones”, which can be freed from the normal rules and regulations of the province, is to prepare the Ford government for another green-tubular scandal, say the opponents of the prime minister.

Bill 5, the Protect Ontario through the release of our Economic Act, completed the second reading at the beginning of this month. The cabinet would give the powers to name special economic zones (SEZ) if they hand over to the law.

The cabinet could then then select selected supporters and projects from the requirements in the context of a provincial law or the regulations, including the statutes of municipalities and local regulations, which would otherwise apply in this zone without saying goodbye. The federal law and constitutional rights could not be dispensed with.

The government of Premier Doug Ford said that the law was necessary to accelerate project permits to protect the economy from US tariffs and that the fire ring is shown as a special economic zone. Ford said that the proposed 401 tunnel could also be a goal.

The opposition parties warned that inserting so much discretionary turns into the hands of cabinet ministers the province for a situation in which the government's interests donate to the government party in the hope of receiving potentially lucrative SEZ designation.

NDP and Liberal MPPS have argued that the government will use the SEZ power to promote allies and political donors, since they believe that the ministers' zoning commands (MZOS) benefit from developer donors and the short-lived opening of the green area, the government would not have reversed the course of the public opposition.

“Let's be honest, none of us can trust Doug Ford that he has not abused the system (like) in the past,” said Jamie West, the NDP critic for work, energy and mines, at a press conference this week. “I've been here for seven years. I am 100 percent (confident) that there will be a scandal in the future, especially with this bill he has put up.”

The liberal MPP Ted HSU made similar arguments during the legislative debate.

“It looks like this government is really used (US President Donald) Trump's tariff war to set up future conservative fundraisers. The more uncontrollable discretion -power ministers have more incentive to pay access to them,” said HSU.

“How this government has illustrated in its green Beltskandal, where discretionary zone commands and laws were used to help the discretion of billions of dollars, there were no robust legal or institutional obstacles against the reward of donors and friends. Cronyism also leads to economic distortions and throws the advantages of a calmed market economy.”

HSU said that nobody in the government gave a meaningful answer when he expressed these concerns in the debate.

“It almost seemed as if the government had never considered the most obvious question of everyone: Which corruption risk arises when the ministers receive new, unchecked powers? This is exactly the blind spot that this government still has,” he said.

When asked about these concerns at a press conference on Wednesday, the Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli accused the opposition parties not to want economic development.

He said that special economic zones are supposed to pave the way for companies in order to found a business in Ontario.

“We have to get through the permits and all things that hold back to us,” said Fedeli. “These special economic zones will do that.”

The Ford government has already emphasized the need to put together large properties to attract large industrial projects. For example, legislation – without the opposition of the opposition parties – said goodbye to transferred land from Elgin County to St. Thomas to remove the path for a Volkswagen electric vehicle battery Gigafactory. However, the efforts to gather land in Wilmot Township have attracted enormous controversy.

There are concerns that the authority to explain legislation for special economic zones could be misused in any other way. The executives of the workers have expressed concerns that the SEZ power is used to give work standards, and indigenous leaders have expressed concerns that they will be consulted.

When asked whether the government is considering changing the law so that the cabinet cannot use the SEZ power to weaken the work standards, neither Ford nor Fedeli directly answered.

“We cannot be business as usual and do the same and expect a different result,” said Ford on Wednesday. “We have to change things. But if you change things, you cannot change it without working with all possible sectors and groups and people, and we want everyone to come on board and get progress, because if we are only quiet, we are dead in the water. We want to go forward and get things in motion.”

“I think it's a lot of food congregation,” said Fedeli. “Think about it. We were in a war. We often said that on this podium: We are in an economic war with the USA.”

He said when he tries to lure business to Ontario, managing directors tell him that they are sure that their project can continue.

“And that is why these special economic zones, especially with the ring of fire as our first, will help to pave the way for these projects to continue,” he said. “It will help to reduce bureaucracy. It will help to accelerate the projects. We simply cannot have any projects that take 10 or 15 years before we are realized.”