Laura Mae Lindo MPP, Kitchener Centre

QUEEN’S PARK – The NDP is reissuing its call for the immediate repeal of a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) on Duffins Creek, and the end to the Ford government’s use of MZOs on all environmentally protected areas after a lawsuit was launched on Monday by Ecojustice, on behalf of Environmental Defence and Ontario Nature, claiming the Ford government unlawfully issued the Pickering MZO to enable development on the provincially significant Duffins Creek wetlands complex.
 
NDP Environment critic Ian Arthur and Oshawa MPP Jennifer French issued the following statement:
 
“After standing up in the legislature for provincially significant wetlands and for Duffins Creek – a beautiful, vital and necessary wetland in the Durham Region — we are again asking this premier to stop wrecking the environment. 
 
Doug Ford must repeal his destructive MZOs that allow his government to override local planning rules and run roughshod over environmental protections.
 
This government must stop attacking and weakening Conservation Authorities, and replacing them with orders cooked up by him and his ministers.
 
Today, again, the Ford government faces a lawsuit from environmental organizations because Doug Ford refuses to listen. Ford has already cost Ontarians a fortune in lost court battles, and his MZOs will cost Ontarians even more.
   
Local governments, councils, First Nations and voices from across the province are loudly telling this government to stop attacking the lands, the greenspace, the wetlands and the water. 
 
We will never be able to undo the terrible damage this government is hell-bent on doing.”