MZOs have been a trump card for the Ford government — here's why it's a serious Ontario election issue

A brooding, red brick building with boarded-up windows sits on the Hamilton mountain.

A 23-hectare wetland full of tall grass and bulrushes that birds flock to while migrating is nestled south of Highway 401 near Pickering, Ont.'s border with Ajax.

While a little over 100 kilometres separate Hamilton's Century Manor, a 138-year-old former psychiatric hospital, and Pickering's Duffins Creek, a provincially significant and protected wetland, they have something in common — they've been subject to a powerful and controversial tool the Ford government has used to accelerate development throughout Ontario.

A Minister's Zoning Order, or MZO, is a trump card that lets the province immediately authorize development and bypass local planning rules to expedite what it wants built. Although they can be subject to a judicial review, MZOs can't be appealed or rescinded, unless the province does so.

The Conservative government says MZOs have helped fight the housing crisis and health-care capacity issues. 

Its political opponents, however, say the tool gives the province too much power and is poised to be a big issue leading up to the June 2 provincial election, as land planning can affect the environment, health, housing prices, heritage buildings, traffic and the demand for major infrastructure.

"With the stroke of a pen, a developer can go in and start building on land, whether it's historically important or it's on wetlands … it is a really heavy-handed tool for the government to be using when it comes to how we plan to build our cities," said Sandy Shaw, the NDP's environment critic and MPP for Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas.

The Office of the Auditor General of Ontario criticized the Ford government's use of MZOs in its 2021 report.

It says MZOs were originally intended to be used sparingly, such as in areas with no municipal governance or to quickly advance provincial initiatives.

But that's not happening now, according to the report.

The province issued 44 MZOs from March 2019 to March 2021 — double the total issued the previous 18 years.

"Prior to this, an MZO was issued about once a year," read the report.

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing didn't immediately respond with the current number of MZOs it has issued.

"Our audit found that the recent rise in the use of and lack of transparency in issuing MZOs is inconsistent with good land-use planning principles … this approach treats the land-use planning process as a hurdle," the report said.