Statement by Phil Pothen, Counsel, and Ontario Environment Program Manager

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – Ontario’s government is once again threatening to use new powers that it originally justified as ways to speed up development in order to kneecap the creation of low-cost and environmentally-friendly housing.

This time, the government’s chosen weapon is its recently enacted Special Economic Zones Act. And its target is the in-progress development of approximately 14,000 new non-market, market and affordable homes on Toronto’s Portlands: an extraordinarily large and well-placed area of “brownfield” land that sits immediately southeast of the central business district.

By the Premier’s own admission, his proposed jet airport Special Economic Zone would place the Portlands directly in the flight path of jet aircraft. This would squander decades of design and planning reform, and the $1.4 billion of infrastructure already invested by the City of Toronto, the federal and provincial governments to unlock these lands for a mixed income, mixed use, pedestrian and transit-oriented urban neighbourhood. It does this by attacking a key lynchpin of the project, the 40 and 50 storey towers that make it viable to include several thousand non-market, affordable homes. The Premier now says “tall apartments” are “not going to happen” because they “block the runway”.

What is clear is that the Ontario Premier’s attack on housing in Toronto’s Portlands is just the latest example of a larger pattern of the tools the provincial government said it put in place to address the housing crisis being used to make it harder to build more homes. That pattern includes repealing the land efficiency rules in the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe and Provincial Policy Statement, forcing municipalities to waste construction capacity on sprawl, and even empowering mayors overrule elected councils to block the legalization of family-friendly four-plex apartments.

It is also unclear how the province’s proposed use of draconian new “Special Economic Zone” powers would be relevant to accommodating jet aircraft at the existing Billy Bishop Airport. For a different project and location – and especially one in a densely populated area, designating a “special economic zone” would effectively replace residents’ and workers’ legal health, environmental and safety protections with the whims of the provincial Cabinet.  However because Billy Bishop is already a federally-regulated airport, it is federal laws and process, unaffected by the Special Economic Zone and applied by Canada’s federal government that apply to it. This means that means that the federal government is still responsible for applying all the same federal laws and reviews pertaining to workplace safety, fisheries, endangered species, erosion, bird strikes, nesting and habitat, boat traffic, noise pollution, air pollution, loss of real estate value, impacts on existing businesses, increases in car traffic, costs relative to the expanded use of Pearson Airport, harbour flushing, and ship traffic, as it would in the absence of a Special Economic Zone.

Toronto residents deserve to have a say in the future of its waterfront, an economic, social and ecological treasure too long cut off from the city. Only now, after decades of work and investment by all orders of government is it emerging as a great place to live, work and play. They also need the protection of the same health, environmental safety laws. Nothing less than an open and robust review and statutory approvals process, prior to any decision about airport expansion, can accomplish this.

Background Information

• The Ontario government has so far failed to implement the recommendations of the Midrise Manual, which identifies provincial laws and policies as the main barriers to developing mid-rise homes at scale and ending Ontario’s housing shortage.
• In ordinary circumstances, where the project in question is not a “federal undertaking” such as an airport, the designation of a special economic zone would give the Premier and his cabinet unfettered power to exempt any person or business they like from any provincial or municipal law they choose, within that zone, for any purpose.
• The Ontario government’s criteria for designation leave that power effectively unchecked.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

– 30 –

For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Karishma Porwal, media@environmentaldefence.ca