Bill 109 Next Steps

Bill 109 refund timeline expected to shift to July 2023

The province has committed to introducing legislation that, if passed, would delay the implementation of development application refund requirements set out in Bill 109 by 6 months, from January 1, 2023, to July 1, 2023. The delay of these measures will give municipalities more time to implement measures.

This commitment was included in a letter to the President of AMO from Minister Clark who also committed to “ensure that municipalities are kept whole for any impact to their ability to fund housing enabling infrastructure because of Bill 23”. The letter was sent in the response to concerns and calls for infrastructure funding after Bill 23 – More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 received royal assent on November 28, 2022.

With these new timelines, the City of Ottawa will no longer be implementing an Interim Process for pre-consultation. In addition, the report that was to go to Council in December 2022 will now be shifted to the end of Q1 or early Q2 2023. The department will be using this time to finalize and socialize the Bill 109 changes and organize staff training sessions on the new pre-consultation process and the Development Application Study Policy By-law (studies) in Q1 2023.