The Ford government is promising to “protect Ontario” from the impact of U.S. tariffs by tearing down trade barriers between provinces and speeding up permitting and approvals for the mining of critical minerals.
The Progressive Conservatives also promise to use their fresh mandate from voters to make health care more efficient by bringing productivity strategies developed by auto manufacturers to emergency departments and new private surgical centres in the province.
Thursday’s speech from the throne laid out the government’s rationale for going to “extraordinary lengths” with a red tape-cutting, regulation-slashing and efficiency-driving agenda: the U.S. economic threat.
The government may also move ahead with a number of its campaign promises this week — such as direct-to-consumer alcohol sales and prohibiting municipalities from implementing congestion pricing — according to an internal government document obtained by The Trillium.
The throne speech, read by Lt. Gov. Edith Dumont, set the stage for the coming changes by comparing today’s relationship with the United States to the days of the United Empire Loyalists.
“The members of that first assembly were Loyalists, men who fled north from the turmoil of the American Revolution to build a new home here, in Canada,” she read. “These new Canadians confronted the question of how to protect their new homeland. They had come to a land of enormous potential but faced the immediate and urgent risk of invasion and annexation by their American neighbours.”
Today, “South of the border, President Donald Trump is openly taking aim at Ontario’s economy and our national sovereignty. He has even threatened to use economic force to break our country,” Dumont read.
“This, of course, will never happen. Because Canada is not for sale. Canada will never be the 51st state.”
The speech outlined the Ford government’s first steps to respond to Trump’s economic upheaval.
The first order of business will be a bill to tear down interprovincial trade barriers.
“Goods produced and services provided in other provinces and territories will be treated the same in Ontario, provided other provinces and territories do the same,” the speech said. “Hard-earned credentials from other provinces and territories will be recognized automatically, ensuring highly skilled workers from elsewhere in Canada can get on the job faster, fill key gaps in Ontario’s labour force and help grow our economy.”
Next, the government will introduce legislation to speed up approvals of mining projects by designating regions where multiple critical mineral deposits are present or likely to be present, including the Ring of Fire, as “regions of strategic importance to the province’s economy and security interests,” the speech said.
Proponents that meet certain standards will get streamlined approvals in those areas, as will provincial infrastructure.
“At a time when Ontario is fighting for the future of its economy, uncertainty in timelines and approvals is no longer acceptable,” the speech said. “What we used to do in decades we must now do in months.”
While the government is promising to respect the duty to consult, NDP Indigenous and treaty relations critic Sol Mamakwa said it would be impossible to get shovels in the ground within months while respecting the free, prior and informed consent of First Nations.
“There’s no way that’s going to happen. That should be driven by the First Nations,” Mamakwa told reporters. “You cannot use the tariff issue to override the rights of the people who live in those lands, and that’s what they’re going to do.”
He warned the government will experience pushback if they try to do so.
Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce said the government can do better “while respecting fully the constitutional obligations” with Indigenous communities.
“Everything we do is done in partnership to deliver prosperity for First Nation, northern Ontarian, and all Canadians,” he said.
Lecce wouldn’t say how fast the government hopes to get shovels in the ground in northern Ontario. He said those details would come out in the legislation, but appeared to indicate the problem is that “government is way too slow.”
“We are opening mines every year in this province. We do it in collaboration with Indigenous communities, industry and government,” he said. “We have one of the slowest permitting regimes in the country.”
In the speech, the government also promised to move away from “dogmatic ideology in health care” by using “‘lean methodologies’ to deliver care in emergency departments and surgical centres more efficiently.”
President of the Ontario Medical Association Dr. Dominik Nowak told The Trillium he wouldn’t guess what “dogmatic ideology” the government was referring to but said health-care settings including emergency rooms and doctors’ offices are already “lean” and efficient.
The “lean” methodology embraced by the Ford government was pioneered by Toyota and embraced by the manufacturing sector. Nowak cautioned that “human beings are very different than manufacturing products.”
“Caring for human beings has so much complexity,” Nowak said. “The relationship matters. There's something truly special about caring for human beings — that we have to be careful around what we're preserving in that relationship.”
He called on the province to rebuild the “crumbling” foundations of the health-care system by giving all Ontarians access to primary care and giving emergency departments the support they need.
The opposition
Opposition leaders said they hoped for more on health care.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said nothing in the speech addressed ER wait times and Ontario’s shortage of health-care workers.
“There was very little of substance in there that explained actually how they're going to solve these problems,” she said.
Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said the government didn’t address the millions of people in Ontario without a family doctor.
Stiles said she was concerned that the government might be looking to cut protections for workers under the guise of reducing red tape.
“I don't believe, and I think most folks in Ontario don't believe that the path to a better future for Ontario is a race to the bottom,” she said.
Green Leader Mike Schreiner said he worried that conservation authorities could face further cuts from the Ford government.
“It appears that the premier is going to completely discount and dismantle the environmental assessment process,” he said.
Protecting prime farmland would help Ontario’s self-sufficiency, Schreiner said.
“We can have business development, we can build homes that people can afford, and we can do it in a way that doesn't threaten us (with) unsafe weather events because we have paved over the nature that is so important to protecting us,” he said.
Permit plans and campaign promises
An internal document obtained by The Trillium prior to the throne Speech outlined the two major legislative priorities that were set out in the speech: tearing down interprovincial trade barriers while expanding labour mobility and allowing the province to designate zones of economic and security interest — both of which align with promises the Progressive Conservatives made on the campaign trail.
The leaked document suggests the province may pledge to “eliminate or transform" all provincial public sector permits within a year of passing soon-to-be-tabled legislation and shows civil servants worked on the idea as part of “Protecting Ontario” legislation to be tabled as soon as Wednesday.
However, the document does not indicate whether or not the cabinet approved the plan or even considered it.
The contents of the document, first reported on by the CBC and then obtained by The Trillium, align with public statements made by the premier and his ministers on plans to streamline permitting and approvals.
The document shows civil servants considered potential policy risks from accelerating provincial permitting and approvals, including failing the duty to consult Indigenous communities and negative impacts on health, safety and the environment.
Premier Doug Ford’s office did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
The document also suggests the government has considered moving forward on some of its other campaign pledges in the coming legislation:
- “Immediately enabling direct-to-consumer sales of alcohol products with all willing provinces and territories;”
- “Building homes faster with measures such as standardizing development study requirements across the province, improving certainty by developing a province-wide tool to accelerate land use planning and Building Code permit approvals and ensuring all municipal standards are in compliance with the Ontario Building Code;”
- “Banning … ‘congestion charging’ on all roads and highways in Ontario;”
- “Axing tolls on Highway 407 East between Pickering and Clarington;”
- And “(focusing) municipal speed and red light cameras on achieving legitimate safety outcomes in school and safety zones versus growing municipal revenues and (ensuring) greater transparency on their placement.”
Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria wouldn’t say whether Wednesday’s legislation would include measures on tolling, congestion pricing or traffic cameras.
“Well, I'll let the legislation speak for itself tomorrow, but I would say, broadly, from our perspective, we're trying to move Ontario forward, and we've got some really important policies that are going to move that forward,” he said.
Ford and Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Minister Vic Fedeli plan to speak to reporters at Queen’s Park on Wednesday at 12 p.m., just before the first standard sitting day of the 44th parliament will begin.
