Stand.earth is an…

Stand.earth is an environmental advocacy organization in Canada. We would like to see Ontario’s buildings catch up to modern policies and technologies that address indoor and outdoor pollution, risilience to extreme weather events, public health priorities, and affordability for residents.

Municipalities are using Green Development Standards (GDS) to improve health and safety in new homes, lower monthly energy bills, reduce infrastructure costs, prevent municipal property taxes from increasing, lower demand on our energy systems, and cut emissions.

GDS reduce red tape and standardize planning processes, resulting in long-term predictability that housing developers need to succeed. Streamlining development processes has been a cornerstone feature of GDS across Ontario.

Bill 17 and the proposed ERO amendments would negatively impact municipalities’ ability to implement GDS, limiting their capacity to ensure that new development is built quickly, is energy-efficient, weather-proof, and affordable over the long term.

In the absence of a modern building code in Ontario, it has fallen on municipalities to protect their residents from extreme weather, air pollution, and rising utility bills.

While we support the goal of streamlining housing approvals, we are concerned that Bill 17 and some of the proposed ERO changes may unintentionally slow development as well as progress on building healthy, affordable, and energy-efficient communities.

We strongly urge you to allow municipalities to continue requiring and using all reports needed to meet their Green Development Standards (GDS).

Context of Green Development Standards

Over the past 15 years, 14 Ontario municipalities have introduced GDS to set clear, practical targets for new buildings to reduce stormwater risk, reduce energy use, and bring down operational costs. Most of these municipalities have aligned their requirements with either V3 or V4 of the Toronto Green Standard, providing significant consistency across the metrics used in GDS. This has created a relatively uniform regional approach that works for builders and helps reduce energy needs in Ontario.

These outcome-based standards are not prescriptive, and they do not conflict with the Ontario Build Code. Today, all GTHA municipalities with a GDS have aligned energy and carbon performance targets with Toronto. Five cities are aligned with Toronto’s current requirements (TGS version 4), and eight others use the same metrics but with targets aligned to TGS version 3. This reflects municipal recognition of the need to move in a graduated fashion to enable local builders to adjust while working within a common framework.

Any divergence between municipalities that adopted GDS prior to Bill 23 was from a lack of clarity around authorities. After the passage of Bill 23 and the clarifying letter from Minister Clark, we have seen an even closer harmonization of processes. What is needed now is to provide further clarity to municipalities around their ability to request sustainable design requirements to finalize the harmonization process.

Green Development Standards Accelerate Housing Development

Part of the rationale for creating GDS was to streamline the planning process. GDS consolidate pre-existing sustainability-related planning requirements into a single document with clear expectations. Far from creating greater divergence in planning processes, the harmonization of GDS in GTHA has created greater consistency. This is reflected in the pace of housing development. Toronto introduced the TGS in 2010, and in the past 15 years, Toronto has consistently led North America in the pace of housing development. Toronto remains on track to meet or exceed provincial housing targets.

Toronto updated to version 4 of the TGS in 2022. Since that time, according to the Canadian Home Builders' Association (CHBA), Toronto has reduced development approval timelines by 22%. Pickering and Brampton have also seen faster development approvals after introducing or updating their GDS. On the other hand, cities without GDS—like Ottawa—have seen approval timelines slow down. Looking across Ontario municipalities benchmarked by the CHBA, all of the cities with a GDS have made progress in accelerating approval timelines, and all of the cities without a GDS have seen timelines get slower. The evidence is clear that GDS accelerate rather than slow housing development.

Study Requirements and Topics

We are concerned that the proposed regulatory powers in Bill 17 and ERO amendments would restrict municipalities to a one-size-fits-all provincially approved list of studies. If not carefully designed, these changes could undermine municipal ability to address matters of provincial interest as specified in Part I of the Planning Act. The Planning Act requires cities, in carrying out their responsibilities under the act, to have regard to the protection of ecological systems, conservation of energy and water, and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Cities cannot exercise this duty if they do not have the flexibility to require appropriate studies as part of a complete planning application. Which studies are reasonably required varies both by the type and scale of the project as well as the local municipal context. Regulations related to Bill 17 must be in compliance with other powers and authorities granted to municipalities to avoid confusion and delays for future developments.

Stand.earth recommends that in developing the proposed regulations governing planning studies, the province should regard municipalities’ responsibilities as outlined in the Planning Act and the Provincial Planning Statement. These include the protection of public health and safety, the economic well-being of the province and municipalities, the minimization of waste, and the promotion of sustainable development.

Conclusion

We understand the provincial intent to streamline the development approval process. However, given the broad range of planning priorities cities are required to address in the planning process, caution is required in restricting the range of planning studies.

We urge you to allow municipalities to retain the authorities they need to ensure
development focuses on health, safety, efficiency, and long-term affordability for Ontarians while reducing red tape.

This means carefully designing forthcoming regulations to ensure that municipalities can do their part to ensure streamlined approval and construction of efficient, resilient and affordable buildings for Ontarians.

Sincerely,
Stand.earth