The following are my top…

The following are my top concerns.

1. Development without an end-game

Currently, the planning process requires development proposals to follow provincial and municipal policies designed to protect Ontarians’ health and quality of life and support a strong economic future, and a key component to that is protecting the province’s natural environment such as the Greenbelt. Under the proposed Bill, should a municipality enact an open-for-business planning bylaw, the bylaw or development projects pursuant to the bylaw would be exempt from essentially all substantive land use, transportation planning, and environmental statutes, such as the Planning Act, Places to Grow Act, Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, Greenbelt Act, and Ontario Planning and Development Act. At the municipal planning level, the development project would not need to conform to official plans or go through site plan approval—all due diligence requirements for any development. Overall, with the proposed changes, any development project could be built without checks and balances, and may undermine the Growth Plan’s overarching vision to strategically grow in areas with existing or planned infrastructure and services.

2. Weakening of the democratic planning process

Currently, provincial and municipal planning processes require minimum public consultations for the public to provide input into a development proposal. Under this proposed Bill, a municipality is not required to hold public meetings if it decides to approve a development using an open-for-business planning bylaw. In order for a municipality to use an open-for-business planning bylaw, a municipality must pass a resolution requesting the Minister of Municipal Affairs’ approval, which the Minister can do at their discretion. The bylaw comes into force once the municipality has received approval from the Minister, 20 days after it is passed, or a later day that may be specified by the Minister. However, unlike other current zoning bylaws, the municipality is not required to give notice of or hold a public meeting prior to passing an open-for-business planning bylaw. It is only after passing the bylaw that the municipality must give notice to “any persons or public bodies the municipality considers proper” within 30 days — 10 days after the bylaw has already come into effect. Furthermore, an open-for-business planning bylaw cannot be appealed to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal.

3. A fragmented and incoherent approach to economic development

Rather than advancing a regional economic development strategy or approach, this proposed tool may encourage fragmented economic investments across the province and put municipalities in further competition with each other for employment development. As the proposed Bill is written, the Minister of Municipal Affairs has the authority to approve the bylaw in one jurisdiction but not in another, or to impose different conditions across municipalities. This makes for an incoherent economic development strategy for cities that have integrated and connected economies such as those in the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

The proposed open-for-business regulation aims to create job growth by requiring that development projects meet a minimum job creation threshold, but it is unclear how this can be determined in a way that is not arbitrary. This is in contrast to how planning is currently guided, using evidence-based intensification targets for resident and job densities, which are informed by population and employment growth forecasts.