During the COVID-19 crisis in Ontario, public participation in environmental planning was reduced

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a decline in participation of the public in Ontario’s environmental decision-making process. This raised concerns about the system’s ability to protect core values during times of crisis.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo discovered that the direct intervention of the provincial government in land-use decisions, using a tool called Minister’s Zoning Orders or (MZOs), soared in 10 months after a declaration of a state of emergencies in March 2020.

Moreover, the number of comments received by the public on changes in laws, regulations, and policies affecting the environment declined significantly via an online portal that was created by the province to allow for broad input.

“Public participation clearly suffered during that period,” Nayyer Mirnasl, a Waterloo research assistant for Conflict Analysis Group, stated. “Based upon our statistical analysis, consultation periods were longer in the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the number of comments received per proposal was significantly lower that before the pandemic.”

The key finding was the increased frequency at which the Ontario government used MZOs. These are land use decisions that are taken out of the hands local municipalities. They avoid the need for public meetings and are usually only used in exceptional circumstances.

Simone Philpot, a postdoctoral researcher in systems design engineering, said that there was a dramatic increase in the use MZOs over the period under review. “The government used a tool which bypassed the public participation at significantly higher rates than usual.

Researchers didn’t examine the motives and purposes of MZOs during the study period in order to determine if they were beneficial or harmful to long-term environmental policy.

They concluded that the combination between more direct intervention from the provincial government and less public input in land-use decisions should raise questions about the policy-making system’s ability for resilience to stress during crises.

Philpot stated, “The idea that our government system has lost its core value of public participation and that it has not been maintained in times of crisis is something we should pay attention to.” Philpot stated that institutions that are supposed protecting public participation have not done this.

“This is not our last crisis. That’s what’s really important. I am looking ahead to see what will happen in the event of a climate disaster or other social and environmental issues. We must be able trust our institutions to preserve our democratic values, no matter what the crisis is.

A paper titled “Assessing policy robustness in the COVID-19 crisis: An empirical study on the Ontario, Canada environmental policymaking process” appears in the Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning.