1. I am a municipal staff…

1. I am a municipal staff member that directly works with enhanced development standards. I am also a Planner and concerned member of the public.

2. In my experience, enhanced development standards are applied by municipalities to meet their important municipal goals. Many municipalities utilize similar types of enhanced development standard so there is a level of consistency across different municipalities. Only the Province can create standards that are fully consistent across multiple municipalities.

3. Municipalities should be able to apply enhanced development standards that require greater energy efficiency, a reduction of carbon, and improve the overall environmental sustainability of the site and community. This will provide the health and safety of current and future generations by improving the resilience of Ontarians.

4. Yes, my organization has information on the various benefits of building energy efficient, low carbon and climate resilient buildings. These buildings will save money in the future by electrifying and will be more resilient to more extreme weather.

The Province should create a tiered energy code that provides clarity of expectations across municipalities. Providing two or three tiers would provide municipalities who want to be ambitious and innovative to exceed the base case of Ontario's building code. Some municipalities have the local industry (elbows up) to support enhanced development standards so to eliminate them would put the jobs and businesses at risk.