To Whom It May Concern: I am…

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to express Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Limited's fundamental concern about the proposed provincial Bill 23.

Gay Lea Foods has long been a part of the industry within the City of Toronto for the past four decades. Our commitment has been strong to our community, and we have made considerable investments to continue to abide with and comply with the every changing requirements to operate.
and to ask for your help.

Our primary concern with regards to Bill 23 are with regards to Third Party Appeals.

Changes are proposed to limit third party appeals for all planning matters (official plans, official plan amendments, zoning by-laws, zoning by-law amendments, consents and minor variances). Third party appeals are generally appeals made by someone other than the person who made the planning application.

Appeal rights would be maintained for key participants (e.g., applicants, the Province, public bodies including Indigenous communities, utility providers that participated in the process), except where appeals have already been restricted (e.g., the Minister’s decision on a new official plan).
The proposed limit on third-party appeals would apply to any matter that has been appealed (other than by a party whose appeal rights are being maintained) but has not yet been scheduled for a hearing on the merits of the appeal by the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) on the day the bill is introduced."

In summary, the bill eliminates the right of us and other manufacturers in Toronto to appeal Official Plan amendments, re-zoning applications and minor variances. A company that has a multi-million dollar investment in our City would find itself defenseless against a development application to establish a sensitive use near its facility. A company would have no tool to force the developer to reconsider or mitigate a development application

There are already many challenges facing industry in running our businesses and having this legislation in place would create even greater uncertainty going forward and would impact further investment. . As much as this will affect planning matters in the City, we also believe this is an economic development issue. Business retention is key to our City's success.

Please reconsider the right to appeal

Michael Barrett
President & CEO
Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Limited