[6][7] In October 2020, the government issued a set of MZOs aimed at the West Don Lands in Toronto, allowing for towers up to 50 storeys tall to be built without the city's approval.
Several Toronto city councillors voiced their disapproval of the orders, with mayor John Tory stating that "I think that is a less than ideal situation, to say the least.
The bill contained a number of changes to development regulations in the province, notably eliminating the ability of conservation authorities to veto MZOs.
[21] In December 2020, the Ontario NDP released evidence suggesting that around half of the MZOs issued by the government since March 2020 predominately benefited developers that had links to the Progressive Conservative Party.
[23][24] Environmental Defence Canada has campaigned against the use of the orders, stating that "in addition to creating long term damage to the environment, increasing property taxes, and enabling more sprawl to eat up Ontario’s best farmland, the Minister has sent a strong message to the Ontario public that their opinion isn’t valuable, that experts don’t matter and that decisions enabling development are his alone.
[26] In the Auditor General of Ontario's 2024 annual report found that the Ford government's process was unstructured and "[gave] the appearance of preferential treatment".
The report found that the process resulted in a 17-fold increase from 2019 to 2023 and did forced civil servants to stop providing merits recommendations in addition to basic summaries.