{"id":686,"date":"2021-04-15T20:06:20","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T20:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/?p=686"},"modified":"2021-04-16T17:10:41","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T17:10:41","slug":"ford-government-using-controversial-mzos-in-duffins-creek-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/2021\/04\/15\/ford-government-using-controversial-mzos-in-duffins-creek-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford Government&#8217;s controversial use of MZOs in Duffins Creek development"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Ontario Provincial Government invokes special power in construction project to fast-track plan to build over important wetland<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eco Justice lawyer taking Ford government to court over Duffins Creek development plan says Ontario should get rid of Minister\u2019s Zoning Orders.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Laura Bowman, a senior member of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ecojustice.ca\/pressrelease\/environmental-groups-secure-halt-to-impending-destruction-of-lower-duffins-creek-wetland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Eco Justice<\/a>\u00a0who is handling the case against the Ontario government said, \u201cI think we need to get rid of the Minister\u2019s Zoning Order power in the Planning Act. Long term it has to go or be severely constrained and confined to very specific kinds of situations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026It was so extraordinary, [and it] has been thrown under the table in the last couple of years with numerous Zoning Orders being made for other reasons and in other contexts. I think we should think seriously about getting rid of [this power] altogether, because of its potential to be abused,\u201d she said<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"width: 100%;\"><div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 100.00%; padding-top: 0; height: 0;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/view.genial.ly\/6074ed85f1dd190d15ba54b8\" type=\"text\/html\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" scrolling=\"yes\" allownetworking=\"all\"><\/iframe> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Bowman and Eco Justice, along with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/environmentaldefence.ca\/2021\/02\/08\/going-court-save-lower-duffins-creek-wetland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Environmental Defence<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ontarionature.org\/news-release\/ed-on-statement-on-pickering-council-vote-rescind-mzo-request\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ontario Nature<\/a>\u00a0took the Ontario Provincial Government to court over their use of the MZO power in a development plan in Pickering, Ont. that included significant wetland, Duffins Creek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/politics\/provincial\/2021\/03\/09\/doug-ford-says-hes-proud-of-controversial-mzos-to-fast-track-development.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According to an article by the Toronto Star<\/a>, the Ford government has used the MZO power 43 times since coming into office in June 2018. This compared to the previous government, led by former Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne, who only used the power three times during her term prior <a href=\"https:\/\/environmentaldefence.ca\/2020\/08\/28\/may-never-heard-ministers-zoning-order-used-ok-not-anymore\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to Environmental Defence<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ontario Environment Program Manager with Environmental Defence, Phil Pothen, said, \u201cthe economic development can happen on many sites in the GTA. There\u2019s no reason for them to [develop] the wetlands, when there are other development sites available.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said, \u201cthe only person who really had a stake in [having] it be there were the owners of that particular land \u2013who knew they had hit a jackpot if Amazon chose that site. There was another perfectly good site available. Amazon, once the pressure was up, said, \u2018that\u2019s fine, we don\u2019t need to use that site, we\u2019ll go somewhere else.\u2019 They didn\u2019t say, \u2018we\u2019re not going to do this project.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"width: 100%;\"><div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 200.00%; padding-top: 0; height: 0;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"800\" height=\"1600\" style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/view.genial.ly\/60770e678552a40cea6ceb86\" type=\"text\/html\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" scrolling=\"yes\" allownetworking=\"all\"><\/iframe> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.durham.ca\/Applications\/Works\/PublicWorksProjects\/studies\/prj402\/4-Appendix%20C%20-%20NaturalSciencesReport.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a Natural Sciences Report by LGL Limited<\/a>, these animals have been documented in Duffins Creek from 1995 to 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Originally, the Pickering City Council had requested the use of the MZO. But,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvo.org\/article\/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-duffins-creek-mzo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to an article by TVO<\/a>, on March 22 the Council asked the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Affairs and Housing to rescind the part of the MZO that would include Duffins Creek.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of April 12, Bowman said they are still waiting for the government to officially act on this request and are waiting to see the next move in the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ontario Nature, Pickering-Uxbridge mpp, Peter Bethlenfalvy, and the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing all declined a request for comment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"involveme_embed\" data-project=\"duffins-creek-pop-quiz\">\n<script src=\"https:\/\/katie-newman.involve.me\/embed\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ontario Provincial Government invokes special power in construction project to fast-track plan to build over important wetland Eco Justice lawyer taking Ford government to court over Duffins Creek development plan says Ontario should get rid of Minister\u2019s Zoning Orders.&nbsp; Laura Bowman, a senior member of\u00a0Eco Justice\u00a0who is handling the case against the Ontario government said, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":280,"featured_media":687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[113,111,89,116,117,114,112,115],"class_list":["post-686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-doug-ford","tag-duffins-creek","tag-environment","tag-ministers-zoning-order","tag-mzo","tag-ontario","tag-pickering","tag-wetland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/280"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jrn-305-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}