The Ford government is planning to impose new rules on how local governments greenlight development projects, Global News has learned, pushing the changes on municipalities as the province struggles to meet its self-imposed goal of building 1.5 million homes by 2031.
The government is relying on a series of changes to Ontario’s planning rules, like reducing studies developers have to undertake and standardizing development charges, in a bid to speed up homebuilding.
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Rob Flack is set to table the legislation next week, with changes including reducing requirements for builders to conduct some municipally-focused studies, allowing builders to bypass some city committees and a raft of changes to the fees developers pay to local governments.
The government plans to use the backdrop of economic uncertainty, driven by the tariff war with the United States, to bolster its housing bill, which will be presented under the title Protecting Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act.
The PCs ran their recent election campaign under the slogan Protect Ontario.
The proposed law makes a number of tweaks and changes without completely overhauling the province’s planning framework. It follows a pattern of annual housing legislation under Premier Doug Ford.
According to internal government documents, obtained by Global News, the province is looking to standardize development charges levied by municipalities to pay for infrastructure that supports new developments.
- Trump’s tariffs creating ‘tensions’ among G7 ahead of summit: Champagne
- Canada Post strike: Here is what will still be delivered in a work stoppage
- Ontario could have half-a-trillion dollar deficit by 2027. It would set a record
- G7 finance officials meet in Banff with Trump tariffs, Ukraine top of mind
Development charges are used to pay for things ranging from new roads or transit to wastewater and parks. They have long been a target of the Ford government and homebuilders in Ontario — but cities say they are vital in ensuring the cost of adding new homes doesn’t fall on current residents.
Get breaking National news
Homebuilders have, for years, been calling on the province to work to reduce or eliminate the charges, saying they raise the price of homes and disincentivize new projects.
The charges vary from one city to another, and, in recent months, some mayors have waived or massively reduced them in a bid to spur construction.
To eliminate the patchwork of policy, the government’s legislation would encourage municipalities to reduce development charges.
The bill would allow developers to delay payments until the unit has been occupied (as opposed to paying when the permit is issued), and give builders the option to pay the lowest development charge available at the time of payment.
It would also make it harder for municipalities to store the development charges in long-term reserve accounts and make them spend them faster.
Flack emphasized the charges were not being scrapped and said they were a “needed tool” to get infrastructure built in towns and cities.
“When you see the legislation next week, I think you’ll understand,” Flack told reporters. “We are going to speed up the process; today it just takes too long.”
When the Ford government has previously tried to reduce or change development charges, it has faced heavy pushback from cities.
Two bills it introduced in recent years — Bill 23 and Bill 109 — which made major changes to development charges, were largely reversed after major municipal pushback.
Similarly, audits of several cities the government said would find wasteful spending of development charges were never published and quietly shelved.
Flack said he had “healthy discussions” with municipalities preparing the current bill.
As part of the development charge changes, Global News has learned the government is considering creating a credit-based system, allowing home builders to earn credits for certain public infrastructure projects that could then be applied to future development charges.
The legislation also gives the Ford government a direct say in the development approvals process and places limits on how many studies a municipality could request from a developer.
If the study falls outside the scope of the city’s official plans, the municipality would be restricted from requesting it. The law would also give the province the power to dictate whether a city’s official plans could be changed to require additional studies or reports.
The legislation would also give the Ford government the ability to pare down the list of requirements for a development application, establish which studies would be required and force municipalities to accept certified studies presented by the developer.
A spokesperson for Minister Flack said the government is “driving change ourselves” in the face of “economic chaos and uncertainty caused by tariffs.”
“Now more than ever, we need to cut red tape, and streamline approvals to unleash the full potential of our economy — this includes giving municipalities the tools they need and requested to build critical infrastructure like transit, roads and new homes,” the spokesperson said in a statement to Global News.
Comments