Despite Opposition from Countless Thousands of Citizens Across Ontario, the Infamous ‘Schedule 6’ in Ford’s 2020 Budget Bill – Was Rammed Through this December 8th
Bill Passage Also Means Conservation Authority Boards Will Be Raped of Citizen Members, and Environmental Protection Role Will Be Castrated
A Brief Foreword Note from Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper, followed by a News Release from Ontario’s NDP Official Opposition Party
Posted December 8th, 2020 on Niagara At Large
A Foreword from Doug Draper at Niagara At Large –
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his Conservative minions, including his puppet in the Niagara West riding, Sam Oosterhoff, have now made it clear where they stand on environmental protection – and it isn’t on the side of our kids and their future. We have got to turf them out.
It may come as little or no surprise to anyone that Ontario’s Ford government – in bed with the most morally bankrupt and corrupt members of the province’s land speculators, farmers and developers as it is – would ultimately pass a 2020 budget, bill with a schedule built into it, to destroy any powers that the province’s 36 Conservation Authorities have to speak out for what is left of our natural heritage.
Why in hell would you want to protect what is left of our natural heritage when some greedy bastard with chainsaws and bulldozers can make another buck paving it over?
For this veteran journalist, who began work as a full-time environment reporter at The St. Catharines Standard 40 years ago, I have been witnessing this Ford government destroy at least that many decades of environmental protection progress by so many dedicated citizens in this Niagara region and others, and it is heartbreaking.
I know that there are many others in this Niagara region and others, in the development industry, in corporate agriculture and in land speculation, who won’t give a shit about my heartbreak or anyone else’s, but here we are.
It is time for Ontario citizens who care about protecting what is left of our region’s and our province’s natural heritage to get rid of this bastard!
And what do we do now to protect what is left of Niagara’s green places – its woodlands, wetlands, watersheds and other priceless natural heritage features – from this God-awful Ford government in Ontario?
My Answer at the moment is that I just don’t know.
Our regional and local municipal government across Ontario, in concern with leading environmental groups, could launch a class-action lawsuit against this Ford government, but given the cowardliness exhibited so far by too many of our municipal leaders, what is the chance of that happening?
Niagara West MPP and Ford government puppet Sam Oosterhoff.
By the way, Niagara West MPP and Doug Ford puppet Sam Oosterhoff also voted in favour of this Budget Bill with Schedule 6, designed to gut our Conservation Authorites, still embedded in it.
You can count on this site and on other citizens across Niagara reminding voters of that when this shameless Ford minion runs for another term in the provincial legislature in the spring of 2022 which, thankfully, is not that far away.
Now here is a News Release on this from Ontario’s NDP Official Opposition Party –
Peter Tabuns, NDP critic for Energy and the Climate Crisis, has issued the following statement in response to the Ford government passing legislation
STATEMENT. December 8, 2020
Ford government passes dangerous law overriding environmental protection
Under the Ford legislation, St. Catharines citizens like Ed Smith – appointed to the board of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority by his city’s elected council – will be striped of their seats. That will happen even though municipalities fund more money to Conservation Authorities than Ford’s government does.
QUEEN’S PARK – Peter Tabuns, NDP critic for Energy and the Climate Crisis, has issued the following statement in response to the Ford government passing legislation to rip powers from conservation authorities and allow developers to override environmental protections:
“Doug Ford’s actions make him a threat to Ontario’s water, soil and air, and to the health and safety of Ontarians. Ford plowing ahead with a plan that lets developers pay to pollute the water and pave over vital wetlands despite a chorus of opposition from environmental experts is jeopardizing the need for Ontario to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We will continue to oppose this dangerous, short-sighted law. Every PC MPP that voted to prop up Ford’s destruction of the environment should be ashamed.”
NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.
Niagara At Large 
Not only that, they go on ‘recess’ December 9th until next year.
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I don’t agree with Schedule 6. and I don’t agree with what the Ford Government is doing with Conservation Authority Boards or elimination Environmental Protections. Mr. Draper wrote this article and may disagree with my line of questioning but here goes…..is Milton Friedmen Monetorism Capitalism the real cause of these actions? If so, do Canadians want to continue with this system ?
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Not only at voting time; we need to find the names of these companies and corporations and begin boycotting their products and services. We also need to find out the names of the other MPPs that voted for this and write to them.
The facts are the PCs quietly stealthly shoved this through under the guise of a COVID budget. Followed by shutting down the provincial legislature at a critical time (COVID and unemployment) indicates they will go to great lengths to ignore and avoid the public and any discussion. They are not willing to talk about this.These are the hallmarks of what Sheldon Wolin calls inverted totalitarianism in his book, “Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism.”
Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: have we (US and Canada) unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Where corporations are free to exploit with government approval.
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