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Provincial Regulatory Updates

Dec 13, 2023

Provincial:

Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office released a report called Costing Climate Change Impacts to Public Infrastructure: Estimating the budgetary impacts of changing climate hazards on public infrastructure in Ontario, noting that “municipalities will bear most of the climate-related infrastructure costs estimated in the CIPI project, in part because they manage over 70 per cent of the portfolio in scope, and because their portfolio is more susceptible to these climate hazards.”  You can read the full report at the link above.

The Attorney General introduced Bill 157, the Enhancing Access to Justice Act, 2023, which if approved, would amend a number of piece of legislation, including:

• The Fire Prevention and Protection Act by enabling future development of an administrative monetary penalty (AMP) framework. Once in place, this will allow for the use of AMPs as a progressive enforcement tool that could be imposed upon anyone including tenants, owners, and corporations in contravention of the FPPA and its regulations such as the Ontario Fire Code;
• The Architects Act to establish a limited licence to engage in the practice of architecture;
• The Evidence Act to add a new section that provides that the sharing of information between public sector bodies on a confidential basis does not affect or constitute a waiver of any privilege that applies with respect to the information.

The Solicitor General introduced Bill 159, the Preventing Unethical Puppy Sales Act, 2023 to help stop unethical dog breeding operations, often known as puppy mills. If passed it will allow the Province to introduce minimum penalties of $10,000 for bad actors operating a puppy mill and $25,000 if these violations result in the death of a dog. Changes will also allow the Province to help develop regulations to set conditions that must be met when selling or transferring a dog and establish regulations for record-keeping. Further consultation on details is anticipated.

A number of bills received royal assent (final approval) prior to the end of the year:

• Bill 154, the New Deal for Toronto Act, 2023 – One-time funding for Toronto and a commitment to ongoing discussions on financial matters between the Province and Toronto, as well as uploading the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway.
• Bill 150, the Planning Statute Law Amendment Act, 2023 – Reversal of official plan decisions made by the Province retroactive to the original date they were made, either on November 4, 2022, or April 11, 2023. Construction that has already received a building permit since that time would be able to continue. Applications already in progress seeking planning permissions—for example, zoning bylaw amendments or plans of subdivision—will continue to be processed. These in-process applications would need to conform to the municipality’s official plan, approved under the Planning Statute Law Amendment Act, 2023.
• Bill 146, the Building a Strong Ontario Together Act (Budget Measures), 2023 – Includes implementation of gas tax reductions announced in the fall economic statement
• Bill 136, the Greenbelt Statue Law Amendment Act, 2023 – which repeals earlier decisions to exclude certain lands from the greenbelt.
• Bill 134, the Affordable Homes and Good Jobs Act, 2023 – which exempts affordable and attainable residential units from development charges.
• Bill 131, the Transportation for the Future Act, 2023 – which allows municipalities to impose transit station charges on development to pay for costs related to the construction of a new GO transit station.

While Bill 112, Hazel McCallion Act (Peel Dissolution), 2023 received royal assent in June, there have been some indications that the government is reconsidering this move after news that it will have a significant impact on property taxes in Peel. In response to a question on December 6, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing made the following comment in the legislature: “..this government will not allow any municipality to raise their taxes to a point where it is unaffordable to the people who are living there. Just the opposite, what we are trying to do across the province of Ontario is ensure that people have more money in their pockets. With respect to Peel, as you know, Speaker, the transition in Peel is not scheduled to take place until 2025, so that we can undertake a thorough review of what the consequences of any change in Peel region would be. When there’s more to say, I’ll let the honourable member know.”

*UPDATE – Today Minister Calandra advised that the government will introduce legislation in the new year to “recalibrate” the work of the transition board, taking full dissolution off the table.  He also announced a 8 MZOs will be repealed based on a new “use it or lose it” approach, with additional 14 under enhanced monitoring. Further consultation is anticipated on a number of recently introduced initiatives to speed up housing delivery, including those related to DCs. See attached news release for the details.

The Provincial legislature is now recessed until February 20, 2024.

Federal:

The fall economic statement (FES) outlined the federal government’s intention to curb short-term rental accommodation in favour of long-term housing options through tax tools as well as potential support to municipal governments to enforce short-term rental regulations, however the legislation implementing the initiatives outlined in the FES did not include these. There is some indication that these are being held back to complete more consultation on implementation of the tax tools. SGR will continue to monitor.

Innovation Minister Francois-Phillipe Champagne announced that the government is seeking to add binding rules for generative AI systems to its proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act, and bring the algorithms underpinning social platforms and search engines under its scope.

The Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities announced consultations that will begin in early January 2024 on a housing design catalogue initiative. This will create standardized housing designs, starting with low-rise construction, to help accelerate the delivery of residential units. It will explore a potential catalogue to support higher density construction, such as mid-rise buildings, and different forms of housing construction, such as modular and prefabricated homes. The government will also look at ways to support municipalities, provinces and territories looking to implement their own housing design catalogues.