Ted Barris

They stood there, almost as if frozen. The look on their faces was the best appearance of innocence they could muster. Most kids are pretty good at trying to look innocent. And though the evidence of a massive pillow fight between the two sisters was everywhere, when we suddenly caught them at it, well, you probably know what we got.

“OK, who’s responsible?” we asked.

“Nope,” said one, and she quickly turned to her sister.

“Not me,” said the other.

I experienced a similar feeling of disbelief, on the weekend, when I read a quotation in the Toronto Star from MPP Steve Clark. The minister of municipal affairs was responding to criticism from David Crombie, the outgoing chair of the province’s Greenbelt Council. Crombie announced on Sunday he was resigning because of the Conservative government’s intends to limit the ability of conservation authorities to assess environmental impact of developments.

“(I’ve) been steadfast in my commitment to protect the Greenbelt for future generations,” said Clark in the Star story.

Previous to the announcement that he was stepping down, and 24 hours before six other members of the Greenbelt Council also resigned, Crombie wrote a letter urging Minister Clark to withdraw “Schedule 6” of the budget bill passed in the Ontario Legislature this week. Schedule 6 is a portion of the bill that gives the provincial government the authority to amend the Conservation Authorities Act, i.e. to override anything the Greenbelt Council – in its wisdom – recommends. Crombie emphasized in his resignation that conservation authorities help to balance environmental protection and economic growth.

He called the government’s use of Schedule 6 “high-level bombing” of watershed planning, land-use planning, and all the work that conservation experts have conducted to preserve Ontario green space for the past 30 years.

“(I’ve) been steadfast in my commitment to protect the Greenbelt for future generations,” Minister Clark told the Star.

At issue here are what are known as MZOs – Ministerial Zoning Orders – which give the minister unilateral power to override any planning that local conservation authorities propose, as well as determine the way in which land can be zoned and then developed. And when the minister implements the MZO, s/he eliminates any further opportunity for those who understand the environment (where politicians generally don’t) to appeal. MZOs are the provincial equivalent of presidential executive orders which trump everything – and I choose that word specifically.

It’s perhaps worth noting, that Minister Clark has implemented 35 such MZOs – imposing the government’s development policies – near a number of environmentally sensitive lands. So, his protestations about being committed to protect Greenbelt may be somewhat vapid.

But I believe there’s something more Orwellian in Doug Ford government’s treatment of the environment than meets the eye. David Crombie has also directed the public’s attention to the means by which this instrument of absolute power – Schedule 6 – would become law. It’s tucked inside a Trojan horse budget bill. It’s not a bill about judging conservation measures versus compatible development, i.e. management of the environment. It’s the budget bill!

And if all this seems a bit too familiar, harken back to the years of the Stephen Harper Conservatives when they ran a minority federal government in 2008. They called them “Omnibus” bills. In short, Harper would routinely include clauses in a bill he knew might provoke the Opposition, and in so doing spark a federal election. Then, even when he won a majority, Harper continued the practice of lumping many disparate bits of law into one bill, making it impossible for Parliament to properly consider each piece of legislation. And the Liberals complained vehemently.

“Stephen Harper has used omnibus bills to prevent Parliament from properly scrutinizing and debating his proposals,” Trudeau claimed. “We will bring an end to this practice.”

Then, once in power, didn’t the Trudeau Liberals bring in a massive budget implementation bill in 2019, the very device over which they’d pilloried the Harper Conservatives? In it, as well as budgetary items, the Liberal federal government tucked in new rules about the treatment of asylum-seekers. Hidden between the dollars and cents were proposed new rules that might deny many refugees full hearings and/or facilitate their summary removal.

“It’s a dramatic turnabout for Canadian refugee policy, and one that deserved fulsome public discussion,” a Maclean’s magazine editorial noted. “Pro or con, this isn’t something a government should be hiding on page 274 or a 392-page bill.”

Conservation authorities by their nature are not political. They are created by bipartisan legislation with the sole purpose of furthering the conservation, restoration, development and management of Ontario Greenbelt watersheds. The fate of their judgements shouldn’t be squirrelled away in a budget or Omnibus bill and left to ministerial whim.

The pillow feathers of an unfair fight are scattered all over the place, no matter how much the minister doth protest.