2020-Apr-16
Ontario Government Suspends Environmental Oversight During COVID-19 Emergency
The Ontario Government has issued a bulletin announcing the temporary suspension of significant environmental protection rules during COVID-19. The regulation now in place exempts all proposals for policies, acts, regulations, and instruments from posting requirements for public consultation under the Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR). The new regulation is intended to streamline key policy decisions and legislation that may be needed to address the COVID-19 state of emergency. There is no evidence that this will be misused at this time, and the Ford government should probably be given the benefit of the doubt, but GBA will be keeping an eye on how this is applied. Read more here.