Crowbarring Bill 17 through is an undemocratic demolition of sustainable buildings


Tkaronto (so-called Toronto, Ontario, Canada) — The Ontario Government has passed a motion to rush through omnibus bill, Bill 17, with no opportunity for debate or amendments. The final vote will occur in the next three days, with only 30 minutes scheduled for a Third Reading, rather than the normal 6.5 hours. The expedited process will result in the bill passing as written, without committee hearings or public input.

“The ramming through of this bill without proper debate is an assault on our democracy and an insult to the people of Ontario who want to live in healthy communities,” said Lana Goldberg, Climate Campaigner at Stand.earth.

Bill 17 jeopardizes municipal decision-making powers, including for local green building rules commonly referred to as Green Development Standards (GDS).

About 14 municipalities in Ontario are currently using GDS (or equivalents), which encourage new builds to be weather-proof, sustainable, and low-carbon. The Ontario Home Builders Association says it put forward the recommendation for the provincial bill which overrides local jurisdictional authority.

“The bill is a giant gift to big developers and Enbridge Gas,” continued Goldberg. “The Ford government is known to serve the interests of wealthy developers and has given them another shiny present – the ability to keep cutting corners without having to adopt modern building technologies that make homes safer, resilient to extreme weather, and more affordable to heat and cool. The government has also been propping up Enbridge Gas and is giving it another lifeline to keep hooking up new homes to polluting gas at the expense of the climate and our wallets.”

Studies show that building green is cost-competitive with regular construction and that using clean heating technologies like heat pumps is lower-cost than natural gas furnaces or boilers.

“This bill should be called the ‘Building Homes Slower Act’. We could build new homes much faster if new pipelines didn’t have to be built first to hook up new communities to gas lines for gas furnaces. We have more advanced heating technologies like heat pumps that run on electricity and are way more efficient and cheaper to run.”

“If the Ford government is unjustifiably crushing city efforts to modernize buildings then the province should adopt a strong building code to offer consistent green standards across the province which would make homes more resilient and sustainable, while lowering monthly energy bills for residents,” added Goldberg.

Other provinces are updating their buildings codes to phase out fossil fuel burning in buildings. British Columbia is working towards zero carbon new buildings by 2030. Quebec has committed to decarbonize new and existing buildings by 2040.

Stand.earth will keep fighting for the ability of cities to pass local policies that make their communities healthier, safer, and future-ready.

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Contacts: Lana Goldberg, lana.goldberg@stand.earth

Arin de Hoog, communications – oil and gas arin.dehoog@stand.earth, +1 (613) 978-7329 (EST)