“We need these protections in place”: Peterborough residents warn against loss of environmental protections in wake of Bill 5

This article originally appeared in the Peterborough Examiner on May 27, 2025 and is reprinted here through a creative commons license.

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More than 80 Peterborough residents gathered for the second time in a week outside of the area MPP’s office to voice their opposition to Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act.

This comes as a parliamentary committee at Queen’s Park continues to get feedback on the bill.

Protesters gathered outside of Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith’s Chemong Street office to voice their opposition to the omnibus bill’s passage.

Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce said the legislation will slash red tape around resource development projects, cut government review timelines by 50 per cent, and protect Canada’s and Ontario’s mineral wealth from “adversarial foreign actors” when introducing Bill 5 on April 17.

Those gathered in front of Smith’s office say they weren’t buying this rationale for Bill 5, which, among a sprawling list of changes to existing legislation, includes a plan to roll back environmental protections by repealing the province’s Endangered Species Act.

“This is being thrown around as a response to Trump and tariffs and threats from the south; but these are short-term threats, whereas Bill 5 is proposing long-term impacts and it’s, yeah, it is unsustainable,” said Kellsie Bonnyman, who helped organize Monday’s rally.

“This is going to affect everybody — it’s not just us standing here today at this rally — it’s the future generations who won’t see the same species that we see today, won’t see the same environments and won’t see the benefits from those environments like clean water, clean air and food.”

The Examiner reached out to MPP Smith’s office on Monday afternoon, but learned he could not provide a statement in response to previous reporting on Bill 5 and residents’ concerns, as the legislature was expected to be sitting well into the night.

As currently proposed, the bill would also allow the provincial government to override local bylaws and provincial legislation to create what it calls “special economic zones” which would exempt certain resource projects from environmental impact studies.

This proposal is creating significant concern among First Nations leaders and community members, who have been vocal in calling the government out for the lack of consultation on legislation which they say undermined Treaty obligations.

Lecce has since indicated he and the Doug Ford government would be open to making changes to the bill in response to First Nations’ concerns, however, he did not specify what those amendments might include.

In Peterborough, members of local organizations and Indigenous communities stated they see Bill 5 as a justification for enacting Trump-like laws, rather than actively combating them.

Sue Paradisis, president of the Peterborough Field Naturalists, said she was at the rally on Monday due to the threat the Ford government and Bill 5 in particular poses to nature across Ontario.

“We’ve been protesting government lack of protection for the environment for quite a few years now, long before Trump,” Paradisis said, noting she feels Ford is using Trump and U.S. economic threats as an excuse to double down on anti-environmental policies.

Similarly, former federal NDP candidate for Peterborough, Heather Ray, said Bill 5 is a “Trump-like” bill which will destroy efforts to protect endangered species and natural areas.

“All I see in the policies coming out are similarities,” said Ray, adding she sees the current economic threats as a “scapegoat” for the Ford government’s will to push through legislation which diminishes local decision-making and threatens the environment.

“I see very similar stances, very similar policy, very similar strong-arm type language,” she added.

Ray, who is a farmer, added Bill 5 presents a clear threat to farmlands as well as wetlands across the province.

“We need these protections in place, we need to build in the right places with the right things on the right place,” Ray said.

“If we’re going to just pave over farmland, where are we supposed to grow our food? How are we supposed to have local economies and local food distribution systems if we are being pushed further and further away from where people are living?”