Please find attached the…

Please find attached the CAFES (Community Action for Environmental Sustainability) full submission on the proposed Bill 98 Building Homes and Improving Transportation Infrastructure Act, 2026. (ERO 026-0300)

SUMMARY

Community Action for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES) is a non-profit network that supports community-led environment and climate action across Ottawa. We appreciate the opportunity to comment on the proposed legislative changes under Bill 98.

We write to express serious concerns about provisions in Bill 98 that would strip municipalities of their ability to set green building standards, prohibit EV-ready construction requirements, permit the elimination of climate planning from Official Plans, and centralize transit decision-making.
Bill 98 would dismantle municipal policies that are fundamental to the protection of the health and welfare of Ontario’s residents. For example, it would undo established municipal policies that are key to good indoor and outdoor air quality, increasing the rates of asthma in children, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

Green Building Standards
There are striking parallels between Bill 98 and actions taken by U.S. states to preempt municipal decision-making related to fossil fuel use in buildings. A peer-reviewed study in the journal Nature links lobbying efforts by the natural gas industry with this type of policy. States like Texas, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, and Wyoming have all passed legislation analogous to Bill 98.

The evidence available does not support the claim that preempting local green building standards is an effective or proven way to accelerate housing construction. Nor has the Ontario government provided robust, quantitative evidence showing that removing municipal green building standards meaningfully addresses housing shortages.

According to the Canadian Home Builders Association, significant advances in construction practices mean that highly energy-efficient homes (net-zero) are now cost-neutral at the point of construction in many cases. The reality is that the pace of new housing development and the quality of development are not in conflict. We can have both, and there are good reasons to do so. Buildings built to established green building standards are healthier, pollute less, and have lower utility bills, improving affordability.

Bill 98 should be amended to enable municipalities to continue responding to local housing, health, and climate needs with evidence‑based policies such as Green Building Standards.

EV Ready Construction Requirements
Bill 98’s bar on municipal EV readiness requirements puts the government's weight decidedly on one side of the scale, favoring fossil-fuel vehicles. It would entrench a polluting status quo that accounts for 20% of the province's greenhouse gas emissions, just as the rest of the world is rapidly moving toward electric vehicles. The provincial government previously eliminated EV-charging readiness from the provincial Building Code, and now, it seeks to stop democratically elected municipal governments from filling the gap it created.

EV charging readiness measures help ensure that new buildings have the infrastructure they require to meet residents' needs. EV charging readiness measures allow residents to choose to drive electric vehicles without concerns regarding convenient charging. Implementing EV charging during the construction process is easier and far less expensive than future retrofitting efforts.

Bill 98’s EV charging rollbacks would entrench a polluting status quo, making it more difficult for drivers across the province to switch to electric. The result will be more air pollution, more climate change, and higher costs for Ontario households due to the volatile, high price of gasoline.
Bill 98 should be amended to restore municipal authority over EV‑readiness.

Climate Planning in Official Plans
Bill 98 repeals a section of the Planning Act so that an official plan is no longer required to include goals, objectives, and actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Ontario is already missing its climate targets, and this would worsen the outlook. In October 2025, the province's own Auditor General found that Ontario would miss the 2030 target that the government set, and by a wider margin than the government had publicly acknowledged. Bill 98 would enable municipalities to ignore climate change in their official planning, which in turn will make it more difficult for Ontario to meet its climate targets going forward.

Bill 98 should be amended to preserve climate planning in official plans, recognizing the important role that municipalities play in helping Ontario reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Centralization of Transit Decision-making
Bill 98’s centralization of transit authority at the provincial level removes democratic accountability for transit decisions from city councilors. Bill 98 should not be used to centralize control over municipal transit systems or to strip municipalities of authority over local transit planning, fares, service design, and governance. Ottawa’s transit system serves local needs and should remain accountable to locally elected representatives rather than being subject to broad provincial control by regulation.

If the province intends to extend Bill 98’s transit regime to Ottawa or otherwise diminish local authority over transit decision-making, it should first be required to provide clear public notice and a meaningful opportunity for hearing and comment. The City of Ottawa and Ottawa residents should have a formal opportunity to review and respond to any proposed regulation before it is finalized.

For that reason, Bill 98 should be amended either to protect municipal transit autonomy or, at minimum, to require notice, consultation, and a hearing before any regulation is adopted that would transfer decision-making power over Ottawa transit to the province.

Taken together, the provisions of Bill 98 do not represent a balanced set of trade-offs made in the public interest. They represent the systematic removal of municipal tools that Ontario needs to protect the health of its residents, address the high cost of living, and meet its emissions commitments. The costs of these choices will not fall on developers. They will fall on the families who move into new homes built to a lesser standard, on the renters and condo owners denied access to clean transportation, on the communities that will experience more climate change impacts, and on the health of the public.

Further, centralizing transit decision-making reduces responsiveness and democratic accountability for a local function.

More detailed analysis is provided in the Appendix to this submission.

We thank the Province for the opportunity to provide input to this proposal.