January 20, 2019 Champlain…

January 20, 2019

Champlain Park Community Association (CPCA)
c/o Lynne Bankier, Co-Chair
183 Carleton Avenue, Ottawa, ON, K1Y 0J5

Re: Bill 66 – Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act
Hon. Steve Clark
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing
17th Floor
777 Bay St.
Toronto, ON M5G 2E5
cc. Jeff Lieper, City Councillor Ward 15 City of Ottawa; Ken Petersen, Provincial Planning Policy Branch; Joel Harden, MPP Ottawa Centre; FCA Planning and Zoning; CPCA Board of Directors.

Dear Minister Clark

I am writing to you on behalf of the Champlain Park Community Association, located in the central west area of the City of Ottawa. We are deeply engaged with Planning and Intensification projects, issues and processes, including by-law development and regulatory frameworks, both within our own community, and more broadly throughout the City.

We are writing to express our concerns related to Bill 66 – Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act . We recognize the need for public policies that allow Ontario municipalities to respond to changing and growing economies and populations and to ensure that development keeps pace with growth. However, we feel that this bill goes much further than is required to attain that goal and undermines the safeguards and democratic processes that the current planning framework and environmental protection regulations provide.

We have participated in discussions and co-signed more detailed letters with other community associations (letter from Jeff Lieper, our City Councillor, and also from the Federation of Citizens' Associations of Ottawa).

A summary of our concerns is as follows.
• Introducing the possibility of short-circuiting processes, by-laws and regulations in the existing planning documents (Zoning by-laws, Site Plan Control, the Planning Act, the Official Plan and Provincial Policy Statement)
• Weakening or elimination of health, safety, and environmental laws, regulations and protections that could have far-reaching impacts in a broad geographic area
• Creation of selective regulatory measures creating uncertainty for not only prospective investors but for all Ontarians
• Weakening of the democratic planning process by:
o elimination of the requirement for public consultation
o the loss of the right of appeal to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal

Development proposals that could potentially come under regulation of Bill 66 can have significant impact not only in the zone in which they are located, but also on the surrounding residential neighbourhoods and beyond. In summary we oppose the introduction of Bill 66 as it is currently drafted and request the opportunity for broader and more detailed public consultation and consideration of the issues that we and others have expressed.

Sincerely,

Lynne Bankier, Co-Chair, On Behalf of the Board,
Champlain Park Community Association (CPCA)