Doug Ford

Natural gas is a relatively small part of Ontario’s energy mix. But in the coming years, the Ford government plans to ramp up its use of gas plants.

The president of the company, Sun-Brite Foods, and his wife are also PC Party donors. The premier has faced criticism in the past for promoting businesses owned by supporters.

The Ford government has undermined the independence of quasi-judicial provincial bodies by making appointments to them more beholden to cabinet, says a new legal filing challenging the move.

Environmental assessments are often a major factor in deciding which projects get approved. Critics say the Ontario premier’s planned changes to that system, done through a COVID-19 economic recovery bill, could undermine environmental oversight and maybe even slow down the system.

The Ontario premier said the province’s environmental assessment process is too slow, and speeding it up will drive economic recovery after COVID-19. Critics say the legislation would harm the environment.

The bill would give the province two years to write an action plan to equip Ontario’s health-care system to handle the fallout of the climate crisis. It would also create an advisory board of scientists to assist the government.

Critics say the youth council Doug Ford’s Ontario government started pulling together this month after two years in power will struggle to create meaningful impact without a reversal of sharp funding cuts and inclusion of the province’s most vulnerable.

The Ontario government wants to make it easier to build quarries in endangered species habitat. Combined with plans to exempt logging companies from endangered species rules, the effect could be devastating, critics say.

For several months, the Doug Ford government suspended environmental protections and transparency requirements, citing COVID-19. On Thursday, the premier committed to releasing a full accounting of environmental changes made during that period.

The Doug Ford government suspended environmental protections in April, saying they could hinder its response to COVID-19. “If people can congregate on patios while abiding by physical-distance guidelines, surely they can be consulted on environmental measures that affect their community,” Ontario Green party Leader Mike Schreiner said.

The Ontario premier and his health minister got tested yesterday after another minister was in contact with someone who had the virus.

Ontario’s pandemic pay left out many health-care workers who are on the front line of the pandemic. The province won’t explain how it chose who would get the top-up.

Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce was tested for the virus Tuesday after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott hastily cancelled their daily press conference Wednesday, announcing that they would get tested as well.

The second stage of Ontario's reopen will start on June 12, allowing patios, hair salons and other services to reopen. But a stretch of southern Ontario that wraps around Lake Ontario — spanning from Durham to the Greater Toronto Area to Hamilton and Niagara — will have to wait a while longer, along with Chatham-Kent and Windsor-Essex.

The suspension of environmental protection rules allows the government to make changes that don’t relate to the pandemic without telling the public. It has already been used to allow industry to delay reporting their greenhouse gas emissions.