Editorial by Joyce Hall, Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign (OCEC) Co-Chair
Is the Ford government eroding Ontario democracy? Democracy means more than having elections every four years. Checks and balances within a system ensure that power is responsible, transparent, and accountable. Unfortunately, they can be removed incrementally and gradually, with the result that democracy suffers death by a thousand cuts. Project Democracy uses another metaphor, “salami tactics”: slicing away at democracy a sliver at a time, blurring the line between democracy and authoritarianism. Such tactics by the Ford Ontario government fall into roughly four categories, suggested by the V-Dem Democracy Report 2023.
Category 1: Centralising executive (Ministerial) authority
Weakening or abolishing authority of impartial authorities and arm’s length and stakeholder bodies; removing municipal powers; removing appeal and consultation processes. Examples:
- Bill 185 allowing the Ontario minister of Natural Resources to overrule Conservation Authority decisions, removing appeals to the Ontario Land Tribunal except for land developers, removing planning authority from upper tier regional bodies, and giving the province the authority to expand municipal settlements with no requirement for a review.
- Extensive use of Ministerial Zoning Orders to which there is no appeal process, exempting zoning applications from stakeholder input. Recently MZOs were given more power through Bill 185 against specific advice from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. See the comment by Phil Photen of Environmental Defence.
- Giving Cabinet inappropriate control over appointments to agencies, commissions, boards and tribunals.
- Dissolving the Environment Commissioner office (April 2019)
- Bill 165 overruling the Ontario Energy Board decision on gas infrastructure in new developments
- Bill 23 diminishing the powers of Conservation Authorities
- Bill 162 allowing expropriation prior to completion of an environmental assessment (EA), affecting the integrity and credibility of the EA process. See also erosion of safeguards against expropriation, as reported by the National Observer in connection to a land grab in Wilmot township
- Violating the Environmental Bill of Rights repeatedly when scrapping the Cap and Trade program with no public consultation and enacting legislation that rolls back environmental assessment law.
Category 2: Weakening the power of the legislature; suppressing information
- Omnibus (oversized, bloated) bills which change several pieces of legislation covering various areas so changes cannot be considered in a thorough, evidence-based process.
- Refusing to release mandate letters so the public can see what Ministers are tasked with doing, even after being ordered by courts to do so.
- Limiting comment periods and the number of participants in committee hearings which avoids accountability to MPs and the public. The extended recess of the legislature this summer has the same effect.
- Suppressing the 534-page report, Provincial Climate Change Impact Assessment. The government asked researchers to downplay findings on how climate change will impact food, buildings and people.
Category 3: Usurping control of the judiciary
- Proposing a process where Ontario’s new Chief Justice will be chosen by PC Minister and Attorney General Doug Downey. Downey will receive applications directly to his private email, and if he wishes, interview candidates of his choice alone. Obviously, this is a crass violation of the fundamental democratic principle of separation of the state and judiciary. Downey’s justification amounts to: “Just trust me”.
- Usurping power to appoint judges, creating a process that is politicised and unconstitutional.
Category 4: Rigging voting rules and the conduct of elections
- Bill 254, changing limits on spending by increasing the amount individuals can donate to the highest limit in any Canadian jurisdiction; changing the definition of 3rd party advertisers which, according to Corruptontario, “silenced organised dissent in Ontario.”
- Passing an election financing law which had been struck down by the Ontario Superior Court using the notwithstanding clause. (Passed by calling the Legislature back from summer break.) Election 2022:
- P.C. candidates did not participate in debates.
- Number of polling stations significantly reduced. There were 751 fewer voting locations across the province on election day compared to 2018.
- Weeks before the election, publication of polling results predicting a P.C. sweep likely acted as a barrier to participation, causing low voter turnout. Of course, many polls are commissioned by parties so the questions are heavily biased.
- Voters may also be turned off if an election is held early, in just an (expensive) political ploy.
Standing on guard:
In the face of salami tactics which erode democracy, advocacy groups need to be watchdogs and maintain at the centre of our campaigns a continuous and passionate demand for robust democratic process with checks and balances that preserve the values of fairness, inclusion and evidence-based decision making.