Ontario Government Proposes New Provincial Planning Statement And Other Measures To Increase Housing Supply

• Published date: 25 April 2023
• Subject Matter: Real Estate and Construction, Construction & Planning, Real Estate, Landlord & Tenant - Leases
• Law Firm: Stikeman Elliott LLP
• Author: Mr Jonathan Cheng and Calvin Lantz

On April 6, 2023, the Ontario government introduced a suite of legislative, regulatory, and policy proposals to tackle the housing supply crisis, including a new Provincial Planning Statement to streamline the rules around land use planning.

Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants

On April 6, 2023, Ontario's Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing (the "Minister") introduced the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants housing supply action plan, the next step in the Government's ongoing effort to address Ontario's housing supply crisis and build 1.5 million homes by 2031. This latest action plan builds upon the Government's past efforts, including the More Homes, More Choice (2019), More Homes For Everyone (Spring 2022) and More Homes Built Faster (Fall 2022) housing supply action plans.

Through this year's action plan, the Ontario Government is proposing various legislative, regulatory, and policy changes. While some of these changes affect residential tenancy rights, home purchasers, and other matters, the focus of this post will be on the proposed changes to Ontario's planning and land development regime.

Bill 97 - Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023

As part of this year's action plan, the Government has tabled Bill 97, Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023 ("Bill 97"). Bill 97 proposes amendments to the Building Code Act, 1992, the City of Toronto Act, 2006, the Development Charges Act, 1997, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing Act, the Municipal Act, 2001, the Planning Act, and the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006.

Key highlights of these proposed legislative changes include the following:

• "Areas of Employment"
  • While applicants can typically appeal Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment applications to the Ontario Land Tribunal for a municipality's refusal or non-decision, the Planning Act presently prohibits such appeals from being made if the proposal is made to remove lands from "areas of employment".
  • Bill 97 proposes to narrow the Planning Act's definition of "areas of employment" to exclude institutional and commercial uses (such as retail and office)'instead, "areas of employment" will include only manufacturing, warehousing, and related uses (as well as certain uses that may be prescribed in regulation).
• Site Plan Control for Small-scale Residential Developments
  • Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster Act 2022 ("Bill 23"), which was passed on November 28, 2022, exempted residential development containing 10 or fewer residential units from Site Plan Control.
  • Bill 97 proposes to introduce a carve-out to this exemption such that this exemption will not apply to lands within prescribed areas.
  • The Government is presently consulting on two proposed regulations for carve-outs to this exemption, which will make Site Plan Control applicable for residential development with 10 or fewer units, in the following circumstances
    • where any part of the property is located within 120 metres of a shoreline; and
    • where any part of the property is located within 300 metres of a railway line.
  • The commenting deadline for these regulatory proposals is May 21, 2023.
• Mandatory Application Fee Refunds - Deadline Extended
  • Bill 109, More Homes for Everyone Act 2022 ("Bill 109"), which was passed on April 14 2022, required municipalities to refund application fees for Zoning By-law Amendment and Site Plan Approval applications that were received on or after January 1, 2023 if the municipality failed to make a decision on the application within a specified period of time
    • Bill 97 proposes to amend the mandatory refund provisions, such that these provisions will apply only to applications received on or after July 1, 2023.
    • Bill 97 also proposes that the mandatory refund provisions do not apply to municipalities prescribed by regulation.
• Ministerial Zoning Orders and Downstream Approvals
  • Bill 97 proposes to empower the Minister, in issuing a...