Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles doesn’t believe the province needs to scrap its regulatory regime to thrive through a trade war with the U.S. In an interview, she told Ricochet it needs to scrap its controversial Bill 5 legislation and “boldly” reinvest in the social infrastructure a thriving economy needs.
While Premier Doug Ford was meeting with his provincial counterparts in Muskoka this week, Stiles was on a tour through northern Ontario.
“I want to see some bold solutions. I want to see this as one of those post-world war moments where we invest, where we see the opportunity that’s presented to us,” Stiles said, in an interview during her stop in Thunder Bay on Monday, part of her “All In For Ontario” tour hitting a number of cities and towns across the province.
“When I talk to industry like forestry, mining – anybody – they will all tell you that they cannot attract people to come and work because there’s not enough affordable housing. There aren’t enough schools. They can’t guarantee they’re going to get the health care they need, there won’t be a doctor. Those are the huge issues impacting our economy and it’s time we stopped thinking of it like it’s something we have to spend. This is an investment in our future.”
The Financial Accountability Office of Ontario predicts a dip into recession this year, possibly into next year. Stiles is calling for Ontario to prioritize buying local lumber to build more homes, which would hold up an industry whose leaders estimate they stand to lose $2 billion from the loss of cross-border trade. She says the Ontario NDP is also keeping an eye on the upcoming New York City mayoral election, in which Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani is promising bold populist ideas, such as free buses and public grocery stores. Although not quite the same, Styles points to the ONDP’s promise of a grocery store rebate.
Any social solutions, Stiles says, must rise from local ingenuity. For example, a non-profit personal support worker program on St. Joseph’s Island near Sault Ste. Marie has served 170 people since it launched in 2020, revitalizing home care services that hadn’t existed in the rural area for over a decade.
However instead of building on social solutions, Ontario has passed what Stiles calls “ridiculous power-grab legislation” in Bill 5. The law allows the government to identify “trusted proponents” and designate “special economic zones” in which environmental, labour, and municipal bylaws don’t apply. First Nations leaders have been at the front of critical demonstrations, arguing the law violates their right to consultation and accommodation.In early July, Stiles rallied with farmers and residents of Dresden, a small town where the province has used Bill 5 — what the government has called “mining legislation” — to allow proponents of a proposed landfill to dodge an environmental assessment.
“What I said to those people is, ‘you are the canary in the coal mine… if it can happen in Dresden – which is basically Conservative country – it can happen anywhere, anytime, to anyone.’ And I fear that’s the message we have to get out to people: it’s your rights that are at risk,” she said.
“What’s obviously getting a lot of attention right now is the steamrolling of treaty rights, which is terrible and is going to set us back generations, and is frankly going to hold up projects. It’s going to hold up northern development. But I think we also have to recognize that it’s everybody that can be impacted by this, because it does mean the suspension of any right, anywhere, anytime.”
In her view, the legislation interferes with the ability for First Nations to independently strike their own partnerships with commercial and industrial proponents. While she expects resistance to Bill 5 “in the courts or on the land,” she says the setback to those relationships ultimately compromises Ontario’s investment climate.
She says First Nations have the right to walk away from the table and say no to development, and that an NDP government would lean into that right for stability.“I’m not going to impose anything on First Nations. I want First Nations’ leadership to tell me, what’s the best way you want to proceed with this?”In February, Ford was elected to his third consecutive majority government. Northern Ontario First Nation leaders have repeatedly asked to meet with him on infrastructure projects but he has refused, going back long before the introduction of Bill 5.
Stiles says First Nation communities should have the right to refuse any development.
“They do currently and they should be able to [say no]. But I also think that for the most part, First Nations in Ontario want to be able to see good development happen, but they also don’t want to have no say in what happens in their territories where they have treaties, and where they, frankly, know the land much better than anybody else.”
Some northern communities, such as Neskantaga and Attiwapiskat First Nations, which have been waiting for years for clean drinking water and living under long-term boil-water advisories, are now being told that their territories are located in the so-called Ring of Fire region, a massive area north of Thunder Bar that contains mineral deposits suspected to hold more than $60-billion worth of critical minerals.
