Ontario fights zoning carve‑outs

Ontario’s government gave itself a tool last year that can carve out parts of the province and switch off normal rules inside them, and four advocacy groups have now asked a court to strike that tool down as unconstitutional. The filing was announced on April 8, 2026 by Ecojustice for Democracy Watch, Environmental Defence Canada, Friends of the Earth Canada, and Wildlands League. (ecojustice.ca) The law at the center of the fight is the Special Economic Zones Act, which was bundled into Bill 5 and became law on June 5, 2025 after passing the Ontario legislature. Bill 5 was sold by Premier Doug Ford’s government as a way to speed up mining, energy, and infrastructure projects during trade pressure from the United States. (ola.org) (ero.ontario.ca) A special economic zone is not a tax break district or a business park in the usual sense. Under Ontario’s version, cabinet can designate a zone, name a project, name a “trusted proponent,” and then exempt that zone, project, or proponent from provincial laws, regulations, permits, approvals, and even municipal bylaws. (ero.ontario.ca) (ca.news.yahoo.com) The challengers say that crosses a constitutional line because lawmakers are supposed to make laws in public votes at Queen’s Park, not hand cabinet a blank cheque to rewrite them later behind closed doors. Their claim is aimed at what they call an unlawful transfer of legislative power from the legislature to the executive branch. (ecojustice.ca) (ca.news.yahoo.com) Ontario’s own public explanation shows how broad the power is. The Environmental Registry says the act lets future regulations create exemptions or modifications to provincial acts, regulations, or instruments for designated projects or trusted proponents inside special economic zones. (ero.ontario.ca) The Ford government says those powers are for projects it considers urgent and strategically important, and says regulations will include criteria and “necessary safeguards and obligations.” The province also tied the law to economic security, supply chains, and faster approvals for high-impact development. (ero.ontario.ca) (news.ontario.ca) This stopped being an abstract legal argument when Ford pointed to a real site. In March 2026, the province said it intends to declare Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport a special economic zone to speed up an expansion that would allow jets to operate there. (news.ontario.ca) (ca.news.yahoo.com) That example helps explain why opponents are alarmed. If cabinet can redraw the rulebook for one airport, critics say it can do the same for mines in northern Ontario, a tunnel under Highway 401, nuclear projects, a James Bay port, or other politically favored developments. (ecojustice.ca) This lawsuit is narrower than the other big court fight around Bill 5. Several First Nations launched a separate challenge in 2025 arguing the broader law violates constitutional and treaty rights, while the new case zeroes in on the special economic zones section itself. (nationalobserver.com) (thenarwhal.ca) So the court is being asked a basic question with a very concrete consequence: can Ontario’s cabinet pick a place, pick a project, and suspend the laws that would normally govern it. If the answer is yes, the province keeps a fast-track lever unlike anything most people think of as ordinary zoning. (ecojustice.ca) (ero.ontario.ca)