Provincial Legislation affecting Planning, Real Estate and Economic Development

Municipalities in Ontario have been subjected to a number of changes as a result of the provincial government’s roll out of the More Homes, More Choice: Ontario’s Housing Supply Action Plan.

In December 2021, the province appointed a Housing Affordability Task Force, which authored a report with 55 recommendations released on February 8, 2022. The City’s position on the impact of the Task Force’s recommendations was presented to Council on March 23, 2022 in report ACS2022-PIE-EDP-0008. Acting quickly to implement part of the recommendations of the Task Force, Bill 109 and Bill 23 were introduced by the Provincial Government.

Bill 109, More Homes for Everyone Act, 2022 received Royal Assent on April 14^th, 2022. The Bill made changes to the Planning Act and other statutes to implement some of the 55 recommendations in the Task Force Report. Impacts on the City included an indefinite suspension of ministerial-approval of the new Official Plan, mandatory appointment of staff to approve Site Plans, mandatory refunds for Site Plan and Zoning Applications that exceed statutory timelines, removed councillor concurrence and imposed mandatory timelines, and the introduction of a new “Community Infrastructure and Housing Accelerator” tool.

Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022, was introduced at the Provincial Legislature received Royal Assent on November 28th, 2022 and goes further in implementing the Task Force Report. The Bill proposes extensive changes to a number of Acts and regulations including the Development Charges Act, Planning Act, Municipal Act, and others.

Staff in PRED continue to identify and implement the necessary changes to our policies, procedures, and by-laws. Residents will find the most up to date information on this process on this webpage. Residents can use the Key Topics links to the right of the project page to easily access categories of interest.