The Province through Bill 17…

The Province through Bill 17 made changes to the Building Code to clarify that the Municipal Act or City of Toronto Act do not authorize a municipality to pass "by-laws" respecting the construction or demolition of buildings. If the intent of this change is to prohibit municipalities from adopting green development standards or other standards beyond the requirements of the Building Code, then the complete application requirements and any associated regulation should clearly exempt any green standard or related document that has the effect of a municipality adopting any standard, whether through By-law, condition of Subdivision or Site Plan or any other mechanism through the review of planning applications from being required as part of a complete application. Green development standards are not typically implemented by "By-law". They are building standards imposed through the adoption of "Guidelines" or other documents/plans through a municipal Council resolution and often imposed through conditions of approval on planning applications. There cannot be any ambiguity on this requirement. Either Green Development or other Standards that exceed code requirements can be implemented by municipalities or not. Bill 17 and the complete application requirements are not clear on this issue and this must be clarified either through amendment to the complete application requirements, a regulation or both to ensure consistency in the intent and interpretation of this matter.