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WHAT DOUG FORD'S WIN MEANS FOR ENVIRONMENT

BOB BOWLES Bob Bowles is an awardwinning writer, artist and naturalist.

We have just completed another Ontario election to determine the decisionmaking power for the next four years.

Only 43 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot, setting a record for the lowest voter turnout ever in an provincial campaign.

The Progressive Conservatives will form a government with 83 seats, up from 76 in 2018. The NDP took 31 seats, down from 40 in 2018, and the Liberals with eight seats are up one from 2018. Ontario Green Leader Mike

Schreiner held his seat, and Independent Bobbi Ann Brady took the longtime PC seat in Haldimand-Norfolk.

Not a great change from 2018.

Only 40 per cent of Ontario voters voted PC, but they won 83 seats — a majority with no or little opposition.

Premier Doug Ford's use of minister's zoning orders (MZOs) to immediately authorize development and bypass local planning rules to expedite what the government wants built has caused concern over the impact on the environment.

The Tories have big plans for building new highways through Ontario's greenbelt (Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass). Critics have raised important concerns about these projects' impacts on protected areas, endangered species habitat, loss of wetlands and farmlands, danger to rivers with highway crossings, and increased greenhouse-gas emissions.

But the PCs promised the completion of these projects if successful on June 2.

The federal government may delay the controversial Highway 413 project, but the Bradford Bypass over the headwaters of Lake Simcoe is promised to start right away.

Ford mentioned "getting it done" and paving a new highway north to the Ring of Fire. They already proposed twinning Highway 17 north and widening Highway 417 in Ottawa.

Now, with full power, will Ford become more reasonable and listen to Schreiner's concerns about paving over Ontario, or Brady's concerns about the use of MZOs? Will fall municipal elections save our few remaining wetlands?

NEWS OPINION

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2022-06-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://communitynews.pressreader.com/article/281625308980380

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