Climate Action Newmarket…

Climate Action Newmarket Aurora Submission on the Draft Regulation under the Special Economic Zones Act, 2025

While the SEZ legislation may be intended to help build Ontario’s future net-zero capacity, this purpose has not yet been clearly articulated in the Protecting Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act or in any updated provincial climate plan since 2017. Climate Action Newmarket-Aurora respectfully encourages the Ministry to strengthen this alignment by including explicit legal protection for the Greenbelt, Oak Ridges Moraine, and Niagara Escarpment within the SEZ regulation, ensuring that economic innovation goes hand-in-hand with environmental protection and climate responsibility.

Any regulation that allows SEZs to bypass or weaken these protections would directly contradict those statutes and the intent of the Greenbelt Statute Law Amendment Act (2023), which codified the Greenbelt boundaries in law; the Premier’s promise notwithstanding. The SEZ framework must not become a backdoor mechanism to erode environmental safeguards, public trust, or Indigenous rights. We recommend that the regulation clearly state:

"All designations, developments, and operations within Special Economic Zones shall be consistent with Ontario’s and Canada’s legislated commitments to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, ensuring that economic growth aligns with climate action and environmental stewardship.

Furthermore, no Special Economic Zone shall be designated, developed, or operated in a way that infringes upon or diminishes the constitutionally protected rights of Indigenous Peoples as affirmed in Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, nor in a manner inconsistent with the principles of free, prior, and informed consent as outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)."

Detailed recommendations are included in the accompanying document.