While I support the Province…

While I support the Province’s goal of improving efficiency and reducing unnecessary delays in development, I believe the current focus on limiting enhanced development standards at the lot level is misplaced. Ontario urgently needs more housing, but we also need healthy, livable, resilient communities. Thoughtful development standards—such as requirements for stormwater management features, green infrastructure, permeable surfaces, adequate soil volumes, native planting, bicycle parking, and other elements—are not simply “extras.” They are essential to long-term sustainability, climate resilience, and quality of life for residents.

The issue slowing development is not the municipal standards themselves, but rather the layers of review and approvals across multiple authorities and agencies. Builders and planners consistently experience delays due to:

*lengthy review times by municipalities, conservation authorities, and external agencies

*inconsistent and unclear inter-agency communication

*understaffed municipal planning and building departments

*outdated digital systems

*bottlenecks in building permit reviews, inspections, and resubmissions

These systemic process issues—not local standards that make communities greener and safer—are what create major delays and costs.

Municipalities are best positioned to understand local conditions, environmental constraints, infrastructure capacity, and community needs. Removing or restricting their ability to require appropriate development standards would create long-term costs, not savings. It would also undermine the ability of cities and towns to adapt to climate change, manage flooding, support active transportation, expand tree canopy, and build truly livable neighbourhoods.

I encourage the Province to focus reforms on streamlining approval processes, improving inter-agency coordination, modernizing digital permitting systems, and increasing staffing capacity in planning and building departments—not on limiting the tools municipalities use to protect residents and maintain local quality of life.

Affordable housing and livable communities must go hand in hand. Efficient development should not come at the expense of environmental, public health, and safety considerations.