Spring brings changes to Ontario’s land use planning framework – Ontario announces a new “Provincial Planning Statement” and Bill 97, the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023

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Spring brings changes to Ontario’s land use planning framework – Ontario announces a new “Provincial Planning Statement” and Bill 97, the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023

Spring brings changes to Ontario’s land use planning framework – Ontario announces a new “Provincial Planning Statement” and Bill 97, the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023

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April 11, 2023

On April 6, 2023, the Ontario government announced new policy and legislative changes as part of its ongoing effort to address housing supply and affordability.¹

Most significantly, the Ontario government announced that a new Provincial Planning Statement will replace the Provincial Policy Statement, 2020 (the “PPS”) and A Place to Grow: Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (the “Growth Plan”). A draft of the proposed Provincial Planning Statement is available on the Environmental Registry of Ontario for review and comment until June 5, 2023.

The Ontario government also introduced Bill 97, the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023 (“Bill 97"). Bill 97 aims to support the province’s goal of “tackling Ontario’s housing supply crisis” by introducing measures that help homebuyers and protect tenants, including through further amendments to the Planning Act.

Outlined below are the key details of the proposed Provincial Planning Statement and Bill 97.

Introduction of the Provincial Planning Statement

In 2022, the Provincial Government undertook a review of the PPS and Growth Plan in the context of its efforts to address Ontario’s housing crisis and announced its intention to combine the PPS and the Growth Plan into a single document: the Provincial Planning Statement. Comments on the Provincial Planning Statement can be submitted through the Environmental Registry of Ontario until June 5, 2023. The Provincial Planning Statement is expected to be in force by the Fall of 2023.

The Provincial Planning Statement groups land use planning policy direction under five pillars:

Generate an appropriate housing supply
Make land available for development
Provide infrastructure to support development
Balance housing with resources
Implementation

In general, the new policies are aimed at requiring growth and removing barriers to assist with the implementation of the Housing Supply Action Plan and the goal of constructing 1.5 million new homes by 2031. Specifically, the province is focused on making planning policies simpler and more flexible while protecting agriculture, the environment, and employment lands. This includes allowing for more homes to be built in rural areas, eliminating intensification targets, repealing the Growth Plan, more focus on strategic growth areas and their identification in official plans, providing flexibility to municipalities in expanding settlement area boundaries at any time, removing the concept of municipal comprehensive reviews of official plans, supporting more growth near transit stations (with a focus on planning for infrastructure), and permitting up to three new residences on farm properties. We are completing an in-depth review and analysis of the Provincial Planning Statement and will provide an update in a future publication.

Bill 97 – Amendments to the Planning Act

The more significant amendments to the Planning Act are summarized below.

(a) Employment Areas

Bill 97 amends Section 1(1) of the Planning Act to include a new definition of “areas of employment” that explicitly removes “institutional uses” and “commercial uses” from the definition, provided such uses are not otherwise related to manufacturing uses, uses related to research and development in connection with manufacturing, and warehousing uses (including uses related to the movement of goods). These amendments will come into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor. They will allow appeals of zoning by-law amendment applications that propose to remove lands from areas zoned to permit institution and office uses. These amendments work in concert with the proposed policy changes related to the conversion and protection of employment lands set out in the Provincial Planning Statement.

(b) Ministerial Powers

Bill 97 provides the Minister with new powers. In particular:

New Section 3(6.1) of the Planning Act gives the Minister the power to “make regulations providing for transitional matters which, in the opinion of the Minister, are necessary or desirable to facilitate the implementation” of the proposed Provincial Planning Statement (or other new policy statements issued pursuant to the Planning Act). The section comes into force upon Royal Assent.
New Section 47(4.0.1) of the Planning Act gives the Minister the power to, as part of a Minister’s Zoning Order issued under Section 47(1)(a), order that policy statements, provincial plans and official plans do not apply in respect of a licence, permit, approval, permission or other matter required before a use permitted by the order may be established. In other words, the Minister can exempt downstream approvals and order that lands subject to a Minister’s Zoning Order do not need to comply with provincial or municipal policy to obtain other land use planning approvals. The section comes into force upon Royal Assent.
New Section 49.2 of the Planning Act requires that when a Provincial Land and Development Facilitator is appointed by the Minister to advise, make recommendations or perform any other functions with respect to land, the Minister may order landowners to enter into agreements with municipalities or the Minister to address matters that the Minister considers necessary for the appropriate development of the land. The Minister is empowered, through the agreement, to require a landowner to pay for or provide contributions that are more than the Planning Act, the Development Charges Act, 1997, or any other legislation. The requirement to enter into the agreement will effectively act as a condition of development, as new Section 49.2(3) provides that, until the landowner has entered into all agreements required by the order, only existing uses are permitted. These sections come into force upon Royal Assent.
Bill 23 amended section 41 of the Planning Act to limit the definition of “development” to the construction, erection or placing of a building or structure for residential purposes on a parcel of land with more than 10 residential units. Bill 97 amends this section to provide that such activities will constitute “development” if the parcel of land is an area prescribed by the Minister. In other words, site plan control does not apply to development containing less than 10 residential units unless the lands are in a prescribed area. Similar amendments are proposed to the site plan control provisions in the City of Toronto Act, 2006. These amendments come into force upon Royal Assent.

(c) Parking

Bill 97 amends Sections 16(3.1) and 35.1(1.1) of the Planning Act to clarify that, other than with respect to the primary residential unit, an official plan or zoning by-law may not require the provision of more than one parking spot for each residential unit. These amendments come into force upon Royal Assent.

(d) “Parcel of Land” vs. “Parcel of Urban Residential Land”

Bill 97 amends sections 17(24.1)(c), 17(36.1), 22(7.2)(c)(iii), and 34(19.1)(c) of the Planning Act, respectively, to limit rights of appeal to official plan policies and zoning by-laws that authorize the use of one residential unit in a building or structure ancillary to a detached house, semi-detached house or rowhouse on a “parcel of land”. Currently, these sections of the Planning Act do not allow for such appeals in the case of a “parcel of urban residential land,” as opposed to a “parcel of land,” as proposed by Bill 97. These amendments come into force upon Royal Assent.

(e) Planning Application Fee Refunds

Bill 97 amends the Planning Act to provide that the effective date for planning application fee refunds, as originally required by Bill 109, will be July 1, 2023. Accordingly, municipalities are required to provide application fee refunds for any applications that are received on or after July 1, 2023 and that are not processed within the statutory timeframes from the date they are received by the municipality (rather than the previous wording of submitted to the municipality). Similar amendments are proposed to site plan control provisions of the City of Toronto Act, 2006. These amendments come into force upon Royal Assent.

(f) Appeal of Interim Control By-laws

Bill 97 amends Section 38(4) of the Planning Act to, once again, allow appeals of an Interim Control By-law (“ICBL”) by persons or public bodies who were given notice of the passing of the ICBL. The appeal(s) can be filed within 50 days of the passing of the ICBL or the extension of the initial ICBL. These amendments come into force upon Royal Assent.

Bill 97 – Amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006

Bill 97 also introduces certain legislative measures that are aimed at supporting tenants. In particular, Bill 97 includes amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 that are proposed to:

strengthen renter protections in situations where a landlord proposes to evict for renovations, demolitions, conversions or for a landlord’s own use;
increase maximum fines for offences under the Residential Tenancies Act, such as bad faith evictions, from $50,000 to $100,000 for individuals and from $250,000 to $500,000 for corporations; and
enhance tenants’ rights to install air conditioning in their units.

The Provincial Government also announced that it will be investing $6.5 million to appoint additional Landlord and Tenant Board adjudicators to improve service standards, clear case backlog and reduce decision timeframes. Consultation regarding changes that will help create a framework of municipal rental replacement by-laws remains ongoing. The Provincial Government is currently considering legislation that will require replacement units to have the same core features as original units and will give existing tenants the right to move into the new unit while paying the same rent.

Other Legislative Changes, Measures, and Proclamations

Bill 97 also proposes amendments to the Building Code Act, 1992, the City of Toronto Act, 2006, the Development Charges Act, 1997, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing Act and the Municipal Act, 2001.

The Provincial Government announced several measures to help homebuyers and facilitate residential development, including freezing 74 provincial fees at current levels. These fees are considered to increase the cost of housing directly or indirectly. This includes several fees related to the Ontario Land Tribunal and Building Code. The measures also propose:

providing unlimited deposit insurance for First Home Savings Accounts held at Ontario credit units and caisses populaires;
consulting with the public and stakeholders regarding a cooling-off period when people buy a new freehold home from a builder and requiring the home builder to advise the customer about the cooling-off period;
exploring the potential to permit the use of modular construction and other innovative options to reduce the cost of building attainable housing and to speed up the creation of housing; and
investing an additional $202 million each year in the Homelessness Prevention Program and Indigenous Supportive Housing Program—an increase of over 40% from 2022.

Lastly, the Minister has proclaimed into force amendments to Section 23 of the Planning Act as of April 6, 2023. These amendments give the Minister the power, by order, to amend an official plan if the Minister is of the opinion that the plan is likely to adversely affect a matter of provincial interest.

Dentons will continue to review the legislation and related policy updates as they unfold and provide updates. In the meantime, should you have any questions about the Provincial Planning Statement, Bill 97, and any other related legislative and regulatory proposals, or require assistance in providing comments to the Ministry on the various consultation items, please contact Kat Sliwa or any member of Dentons’ Municipal, Land Use Planning and Development Law team.