The proposal indicates that…

The proposal indicates that municipalities, organizations building civic, community and green infrastructure, and job creators require more time to properly implement the regulation. It is noted that there has been an extensive consultation process undertaken by the Ministry dating back to at least 2015, the implementation of the regulation has been phased in and there has already been a delay in the implementation of the regulation resulting from the covid-19 pandemic. Accordingly, it is reasonable to expect that most responsible stakeholders already have a reasonably well-established understanding of the regulation and its potential impact on their projects. It is noted however, that the Ministry was unable to provide detailed information on compliance with the regulation until late 2021, and accordingly it is understandable that many stakeholders may not have had sufficient time to make last-minute adjustments to project design in response to the additional information provided by the Ministry.

However, it is clear that some stakeholders have not made a good-faith effort to consider their compliance obligations. Accordingly, the Ministry should not defer the requirement for project leaders to submit notification on the registry although it may wish to defer the remaining planning requirements. Ongoing project notifications will assist the public in better understand the challenges faced by these stakeholders while keeping stakeholder accountable for undertaking reasonable soil management actions.