Stand.earth on Ontario’s Bill 17: “a giant gift to big developers and Enbridge Gas”

Tkaronto (so-called Toronto, Ontario, Canada) — On Monday (May 12), the Ontario Government announced and introduced an omnibus bill, Bill 17, which risks jeopardizing municipal green building rules commonly referred to as Green Development Standards. On Tuesday (May 13), the government released additional details in an Environmental Registry of Ontario posting, which suggests that the intention of the legislation is to eliminate local green building policies.

About 14 municipalities in Ontario are using Green Development Standards (or equivalents), which regulate various elements of new builds, including in some cases, greenhouse gas pollution.

“The bill is a giant gift to big developers and Enbridge Gas,” said Lana Goldberg, Climate Campaigner at Stand.earth. “The Ford government is known to serve the interests of wealthy developers and is giving them another shiny present – the ability to keep profiting from antiquated construction, without having to adopt modern building technologies that make homes healthier, safer, resilient to extreme weather, and more affordable to heat and cool. The government has also been propping up Enbridge Gas and is giving it another lifeline to keep hooking up new homes to polluting gas at the expense of the climate and peoples’ wallets.”

Studies show that building green is cost-competitive with regular construction and that using clean heating technologies like heat pumps is lower-cost than natural gas furnaces or boilers. Reports also show that continuing to build out gas infrastructure will increase costs for consumers and result in stranded assets.

“This bill should be called the Building Homes Slower Act. We could build new homes much faster if new pipelines didn’t have to be built first. And they don’t because we have more advanced technologies like heat pumps that run on electricity. Rather than crushing municipal efforts to rein in local greenhouse gas pollution, the Ontario government should adopt a stronger building code to modernize construction in Ontario, bring down emissions, and lower energy bills for residents,” added Goldberg.

Other provinces are updating their buildings codes to phase out fossil fuel burning in buildings. British Columbia is working towards zero carbon new buildings by 2030. Quebec has committed to decarbonize new and existing buildings by 2040.

“This bill looks like it was written by developers and fossil fuel executives. Our homes and communities shouldn’t be dictated by either,” Goldberg concluded. “Municipalities should be supported and empowered to make homes more affordable, resilient, and climate-friendly. If the province doesn’t want to take climate action, it should get out of the way of municipalities that do.”

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Contacts: Lana Goldberg, lana.goldberg@stand.earth

Lindsay Meiman, lindsay@stand.earth, +1 (917) 970-2281