Comment
I see no reason for the proposed legislation as the Province currently has sufficient powers under a Ministers Zoning Order to do just this. This is the PC's idea that the planning system fails in Ontario when it doesn't. The system is failing because employment providers aren't willing to take a financial cut and do the right thing. I work as a land use planner and I can tell you that this is a non issue and that if developers are complaining about the length of time or the cost then they have not done their own appropriate business case and plan to make this happen. They are more concerned with padding their own pockets than ensuring Ontario is prosperous. I can tell you its the same case for affordable house. I've been in the room with many developers when it comes to building affordable housing or building a new industry and the planning process isn't the impediment. Its the cost of construction, the value of the land, the challenges in finding employment or freeing up their own business capital at the right time. Go back to the drawing board on this one. I would never recommend to my Council that they pass this by-law and I can almost guarantee that no local Council wants to circumvent the entrenched planning process to land a employment opportunity, if they hope they will ever get re-elected. Its a waste of ministry resources and the government time. Here's an idea, why doesn't the government fund more staff in order to get applications through. I can almost bet that its the workload of municipal employees that takes the time as the Province regardless of which party in powers feels its important to be constantly changing the rules. We can't keep up with the burden of change that the Provincial government is doing. Let us do our jobs without the distraction of whatever new "great idea" inexperienced and uniformed politicians think will work. The system works... let it!
PS. I could have been doing actual planning work on private developers files if the PC's hadn't continuously changed the rules and regulations. I was too busy trying to make a recommendation to my Council on the new retail cannabis rules only to have them change again in mid December. This is my example of what the Province needs to end this and let us get back to doing business! Here I am again, writing a report to Council on Bill 66 when I have actual land use files taking a back seat to theirs because of the timing.
Submitted January 12, 2019 3:40 PM
Comment on
Bill 66, Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, 2018
ERO number
013-4293
Comment ID
17327
Commenting on behalf of
Comment status