Protestors gathered outside of Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith’s office on Chemong Street to protest the Ford government’s Bill 5 on Monday. (Photo: Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay) This article originally appeared in the on May 27, 2025 and is reprinted here through a creative commons license. More than 80 Peterborough residents came together for the second time this week outside of the local MPP’s office to express their opposition to Bill 5, known as the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act. This comes as a parliamentary committee at Queen’s Park continues to receive input on the bill. Protesters gathered in front of Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith’s Chemong Street office to show their disapproval of the omnibus bill’s progress. Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce stated that this legislation aims to cut red tape around resource development projects, reduce government review timelines by half, and safeguard Canada’s and Ontario’s mineral wealth from “adversarial foreign actors” when he introduced Bill 5 on April 17. Those who assembled outside Smith’s office weren’t convinced by this reasoning for Bill 5, which includes a sweeping array of changes to existing laws, such as plans to weaken 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 future generations who won’t see the same species that we see today, won’t see the same environments and won’t see benefits from those environments like clean water, clean air and food.” The Examiner reached out to MPP Smith’s office on Monday afternoon but found out he was unable to provide a statement regarding previous reports about Bill 5 and residents’ concerns since the legislature was expected to be sitting well into the night. If passed as proposed, the bill would also enable the provincial government to override local bylaws and provincial legislation in order to create what they call “special economic zones,” which would exempt certain resource projects from environmental impact studies. This proposal has raised significant alarms among First Nations leaders and community members who have been vocal about their frustration with how little consultation has occurred regarding legislation that they believe undermines Treaty obligations. Lecce has indicated that he along with Doug Ford’s government would be open to making adjustments to the bill based on First Nations’ concerns; however, he did not clarify what those changes might entail. In Peterborough, members of local organizations alongside Indigenous communities view Bill 5 as an excuse for enacting policies similar to those under Trump rather than taking action against them. Sue Paradisis, president of the Peterborough Field Naturalists, expressed her presence at Monday’s rally due to her worries about how much threat Bill 5 poses against nature throughout Ontario. “We’ve been protesting government lack of protection for the environment for quite a few years now, long before Trump,” Paradisis said. She feels that Ford is using Trump’s influence and U. S. economic threats as justification for pushing anti-environmental policies even harder. Likewise, former federal NDP candidate for Peterborough Heather Ray described Bill 5 as a “Trump-like” piece of legislation that could dismantle efforts aimed at protecting endangered species and natural spaces. “All I see in the policies coming out are similarities,” said Ray. She perceives current economic threats as merely a “scapegoat” used by Ford’s government for advancing laws that limit local decision-making while endangering environmental health. “I see very similar stances, very similar policy, very similar strong-arm type language,” she added. Ray noted that she farms herself and believes Bill 5 threatens both farmlands and wetlands across Ontario significantly. “We need these protections in place; we need to build in appropriate locations using suitable methods,” Ray said. “If we’re going to just pave over farmland where are we supposed to grow our food? How are we supposed to establish local economies and food distribution systems if we’re pushed further away from where people live?”
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