The City of Mississauga has…

The City of Mississauga has provided comments on proposed Bill 108 in the form of a Council endorsed Corporate Report. This includes a response to proposed changes to the Ontario Heritage Act.

Key feedback in relation to Schedule 11 of the proposed Bill highlights the important role of heritage expertise in adjudicating heritage matters, as well as the need for consultation and greater clarification on how the proposed changes would be implemented.

Specifically:

The province should consider that appeals to intent to designate, alteration of a designated property and repeals of a designation by-law were appealed to the Conservation Review Board (CRB) as an impartial tribunal with subject matter expertise related to heritage planning and management principles. As the amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act as outlined in Bill 108 would require these appeals to go to LPAT as opposed to CRB, the province should consider strengthening LPAT to include subject matter expertise for all appeals related to heritage planning and heritage related matters.

Regulations regarding prescribed principles and prescribed events subject to the amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act as per Bill 108 should be subject to a public and transparent consultation process prior to their enactment or implementation.

Please refer to the Council endorsed Corporate Report for additional information.