Heather Wright/The Independent

The leader of Ontario’s Green Party says momentum is building in the fight against the Ontario government’s controversial Bill 5.

Mike Schreiner was in Dresden Saturday, speaking to about 30 members of Dresden CARED and members of the community.

Bill 5 allows the Premier and cabinet to choose special economic zones in the province, eliminating any regulations which might stand in the development’s way. In Dresden, it means York1 Environmental can move ahead with a controversial project to revive the derelict Dresden dump and turn it into a construction recycling centre with a 20-acre landfill.

Schreiner told the crowd people across the province are watching to see what happens in Dresden.

“We’re all committed to working together, to stand up for what’s right, to stand up and say that if you’re a deep-pocketed donor, you shouldn’t get special treatment,” Schreiner said. 

“The fact that there are over 800 landfill sites in the province of Ontario and somehow this one got singled out to not have an Environmental Assessment apply to it?  And then we learned that there’s been at least $200,000, if not more of donations flowing in to the Conservative Party tells you all you need to know. 

“I think Ontario’s better than this…I believe in democracy. I believe in local voices, and I know we have councillors here – I believe those local voices matter, and that you should have a say, and you have a right to have a say, and not to have your voice dismissed, and quite frankly, I’ll say it, in a way, lied to,” Schreiner said.

“We going to fight for you. There are a lot of people around this province that are going to fight for you and we’re going kill Bill Five.”

And Schreiner added there is momentum across the province to protect Dresden from this legislation.

 “What people have told me to tell you that not only are they fighting for their own community, they’re fighting for your community as well, asking the premier to keep his promise to have an Environmental Assessment.

The Green leader added it is crucial the entire bill is repealed. “Let’s say we convince the Premier to remove the schedule that doesn’t subject the Dresden Dump to an Environmental Assessment, there’s nothing that would prevent the Premier from declaring this area a special economic zone and allow the dump to proceed, regardless of what local or provincial laws say.”

Schreiner’s message was similar to that of NDP Leader Marit Stiles who was in Dresden just a week earlier. She, too, said groups across the province will try to put pressure on Premier Doug Ford, just as they had done in the fight against developing Ontario’s Greenbelt; a fight, she noted, they won.