We are of the opinion that…

We are of the opinion that the many improvements contained within Bill 108: More Homes, More Choice Act, 2019, to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT), address a wide range of challenges that became apparent in the process and operating procedure prescribed by Bill 139.

Particularly, we would like to mention a few of the critical changes being implemented through Bill 108 that will have a positive effect on Ontario:

1. The restoration of de novo hearings;
2. Shortening the process back to one hearing instead of two (which was a very likely outcome under Bill 139);
3. Restoring cross-examination; a critical component that allows problems to be scoped more effectively and where evidence can be tested by professionals during a hearing;
4. Restoration of many of the appeal tests;
5. Removing the reverence of municipal decisions, allowing politics to be detached from the hearings and decisions to be made based on ‘good planning’;
6. Making the process faster and cheaper for all by giving the Tribunal the power to require parties to mediate where practical;
7. Reduced timelines for filing appeals for non-decision on complete applications (for OPAs (120 days), zoning by-law amendments (90 days – except where concurrent with OPAs for some proposals) and plans of subdivision (120 days); and
8. Other transitional regulations which speed up the process and provide more clarity and certainty to applicants, going forward.

It is for these reasons and others that we strongly support moving to the Bill 108 system as soon as possible. It is critical that we prevent future projects from heading to LPAT under the passé and very problematic Bill 139 process. Not only will it slow down critical projects, but it will create unnecessary hardship for all parties involved. We therefore ask that the proposed regulations be proclaimed on September 1st, 2019, to ensure the good momentum continues.

We would like to thank the Government for providing the essential leadership required and for forging ahead with the changes that were made to this very important Provincial policy framework.