Spacing article on Ford Fast-Tracks

The Ford government has used its majority at Queen’s Park to pass two bills to fast-track the redevelopment of Ontario Place. The New Deal for Toronto Act, 2023 (Bill 154), which includes the Rebuilding Ontario Place Act, was passed in the legislature in three days without any public consultation or committee review. The acts give the Ontario Minister of Infrastructure sweeping powers to direct construction at Ontario Place, and exempt the project from the Ontario Planning Act, the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act, and the Ontario Heritage Act. It also forces the City of Toronto to sell the 16 acres it owns at Ontario Place to the province, and exempts Ontario Place from City of Toronto noise bylaws. Bill 154 also contains blanket provisions designed to shield the Ontario government from any claims for damages related to the redevelopment of Ontario Place: “no costs, compensation or damages, including for loss of revenues or loss of profit, are owing or payable to any person and no remedy, including but not limited to a remedy in contract, restitution, tort, misfeasance, bad faith, trust or fiduciary obligation, any equitable remedy or any remedy under any statute …”
Read the full article on Spacing.ca to learn more about the ongoing fight to protect Ontario Place and the implications of the Ford government's actions.