Yet again, the Ford government has attacked local climate action and green buildings in Ontario.

Ford’s new Bill 98 threatens green building standards in over 15 Ontario municipalities. Hidden inside the legislation, this bill bans all municipalities from implementing green building requirements, even going as far as eliminating ones that have been in place for years. This includes the Toronto Green Standard, an award-winning policy that has cut monthly energy costs for thousands of Toronto households since 2010 — all while creating countless jobs in skilled trades across the province.

If Bill 98 passes, this policy and many others could disappear, leaving us more vulnerable to extreme heat, flooding, and other escalating climate impacts.

We need you to speak out against this bill. Contact your MPP here. 

Local green building rules work by setting local standards to make sure that new buildings are built to be more energy efficient (e.g. burn less gas), as well as making sure developers meet strong standards for our buildings to withstand extreme heat, or deal with stormwater and flooding on their properties. They often call for trees and other important green infrastructure to keep us cool and protected. 

When you see trees and green space in a new neighbourhood or next to a new development in Toronto, chances are that the Toronto Green Standard required them - not because developers planted them out of the goodness of their hearts. That’s why we need strong rules to keep our cities cool and protected - not voluntary standards that can be ignored. 

By eliminating municipal green development standards, Premier Ford is letting developers walk away with higher profit margins while locking residents into decades of higher monthly bills in less efficient, less climate-safe buildings - just as fuel prices are rising and Ontarians face another season of floods, fires, and extreme heat.

Join us in fighting back. Tell your MPP not to destroy local climate-safe building rules here.

Key facts about Bill 98 and local green building rules:

• Bill 98 will prevent municipalities from addressing their top polluting sector - buildings. 
• Dozens of municipalities like Vaughan, Newmarket, Burlington, Waterloo, Ottawa, Peel and Durham regions, and Toronto already have local green building policies in place
• Toronto has managed to exceed its provincial housing targets with green building standards firmly in place since 2010
• The bill claims to be “removing municipal authority to require enhanced development standards” without providing or suggesting similar or stronger green building standards to take their place.
• Bill 98 also removes the requirement for municipalities to include climate goals and actions in their Official Plans.  Instead of building our homes for the climate we have now, we could soon see developers held to standards for a climate we don’t have anymore. 
• This is the Ford government’s fourth attack on green building policies in four years 
• Last year, Premier Ford also destroyed Toronto’s popular green roof bylaw, impacting thousands of good jobs across the province that came with it.