Doug Ford calls his next big bill the Get It Done Act. Here's what's in it

Premier Doug Ford's government is poised to bring in a major new piece of legislation on Tuesday, designed to speed up construction of new highways in Ontario by shortening their environmental assessments.

The bill will be called the Get It Done Act, directly echoing the slogan that Ford's Progressive Conservatives campaigned on during the 2022 election. 

Based on what the government revealed in three successive announcements over the past week, the bill will be a grab bag of legislation, including measures completely unrelated to Ontario's environmental laws, such as freezing the fee for renewing a driving licence.

The bill's heftiest provisions will reduce the timeline for environmental assessments on major infrastructure projects such as new highways and hydro transmission lines, and allow the province to expropriate land before those assessments are complete.    

"The main intention is to demonstrate our focus on the core mandate we were elected on," a senior government official told CBC Toronto, speaking on condition they not be named to provide insight into internal government strategy. 

The official said the bill will be "focused on keeping costs down and streamlining complex approval processes as we look to build big projects."  

The changes will add highways to the list of projects that Ontario categorizes as "low risk" and therefore eligible for rapid environmental approvals. The government says this could cut up to four years off the completion timelines for such projects.

Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria made it clear that a key objective in the bill is paving the way for two new highways in the Greater Toronto Area. 

"We're doing everything in our power to accelerate the construction of Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass," Sarkaria told a news conference in Brampton announcing the environmental assessment changes in the Get It Done Act. The news conference was held Friday afternoon, just before the long weekend began. 

Other tidbits that Ford and his ministers have said will be in the bill: 

CBC News asked Environment Minister Andrea Khanjin why the government is mixing these items into a bill that would significantly change Ontario's environmental assessment laws. 

"This is the government that really wants to get things done," Khanjin replied. "I think everything in the bill complements a growing community and the growing needs of Ontarians."

Khanjin said that Ontario's processes for environmental approvals have historically been "slow and complex" with "too much red tape."

The bill would also allow provincial and municipal governments to expropriate land for major projects before environmental assessments are complete.