On April 14, 2022, Bill 109, the More Homes for Everyone Act, 2022 (the Act) received Royal Assent. The Act amends the Planning Act, the City of Toronto Act, 2006, the Development Charges Act, 1997, the New Home Construction Licensing Act, 2017, and the Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act. Some provisions came into force immediately, while others await a later proclamation or come into force on July 1, 2022, or January 1, 2023. The Act responds to recommendations from the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force, in part, intended to addressing housing affordability and housing supply in Ontario. Specifically, the Act is aimed at providing near and long-term solutions to Ontario’s housing affordability crisis by making the development process faster, easier, and more efficient and by protecting homebuyers from unethical development practices. Some of the key changes are reviewed below.

The Community Infrastructure and Housing Accelerator

The Act introduces a process, somewhat similar to the use of Minister’s zoning orders, called the Community Infrastructure and Housing Accelerator (CIHA). In essence, the CIHA will provide municipalities with the ability to ask the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to rezone lands in order to accelerate the planning process for local priorities, such as affordable housing or community infrastructure, like schools and hospitals. In determining whether to issue a CIHA (which may not be applied within the Greenbelt), the Minister is not required to consider a policy statement issued under Section 3(1) of the Planning Act, a provincial plan, or an official plan. If another planning approval in addition to rezoning is required, the Minister may also provide that provincial policy statements, provincial plans and an official plan do not apply to those subsequent planning instruments. The CIHA does not replace Minister’s zoning orders under Section 47 of the Planning Act.

In order to request a CIHA order, municipal council must pass a resolution identifying (1) the lands to which the requested order would apply, and (2) the municipality’s proposed uses for the subject lands. The CIHA process requires public notice and consultation, intended to allow the pubic to provide feedback on the municipality’s request. Before the Minister may use the CIHA, the Act requires the Minister to establish guidelines governing the use of the CIHA (the Guidelines). The province released a “Proposed Guideline” for the implementation of the CIHA, and it is open for public comment until April 29, 2022. The Proposed Guideline reflects a wide range of developments that can be subject to a CIHA, including all types of housing, employment, economic development and mixed-use developments. The Proposed Guideline says that the Minister can impose conditions, require agreements be entered into and that the Guideline must be implemented in accordance with Treaty Rights under Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. 

Application processing times – Fees and refunds

The Act requires municipalities, as of January 2023, to refund application fees if a decision has not been made by the deadlines set out in the Planning Act, as outlined below:

The requirement to refund application fees may provide incentives for municipalities to review applications and render decisions in an expedited manner. However, it could have unintended results. For example, some municipalities may refrain from deeming an application complete in order to avoid starting the clock on the timeline to process the application, or may rush a refusal decision through municipal council rather than staying at the table with the proponent to work through comments.

Ministerial approvals for official plans or official plan amendments

The Act makes changes to the Planning Act relating to Ministerial approval of official plan and official plan amendments. Where the Minister is the approval authority with respect to an official plan, the Minister may refer the official plan or an official plan amendment to the Ontario Land Tribunal (the Tribunal) for a recommendation or a decision. Before making a recommendation or decision, the Tribunal may hold a hearing “or other proceeding” and if the Tribunal does so, it must provide notice of the hearing “or other proceeding” to the municipality that adopted the plan and any person or public who, before the plan was adopted, made oral submissions at a public meeting or written submissions to Council. The Act also amends the Planning Act so that there is no right of appeal from an official plan amendment where the approval authority is the Minister and the amendment was the subject of a referral to the Tribunal, and the Minister has rendered a decision following a referral. These changes reintroduce the Tribunal into matters where the Minister is the approval authority, at the Minister’s discretion. The Minister may direct matters to the Tribunal prior to rendering a decisions or for final decisions. Lastly, the Act allows the Minister to suspend the statutory time period in which the Minister is to make a decision on official plans and official plan amendments. Prior to the enactment of the Act, the Minister had 120 days to make a decision, and if a decision was not made within that time period, an appeal could be brought by the municipality for non-decision.

Community benefit charge by-laws and parkland

The Act introduces amendments that require municipalities that have a community benefits charge by-law to conduct reviews of the by-law (at least once every five years) and determine if revisions are necessary. Pursuant to the amendments, municipalities must consult with such persons and public bodies as the municipality considers appropriate during the review. The Act also establishes alternative requirements for parkland dedication of lands that are designated as a “transit-oriented community” under the Transit-Oriented Communities Act, 2020, as follows:

1. Parkland contribution requirement of 10% of the land or value of the land if the lands are five hectares or less in area; or
2. Parkland contribution requirement of 15% of the land or value of the land if the lands are greater than five hectares in area.

Lastly, the Act gives the Minister of Infrastructure the power to identify land as “encumbered” if the land is designated as a “transit-oriented community” or exhibits site specific criteria, including whether the land is, in the opinion of the Minister, capable of being used for park or other public recreational purposes. Land identified by the Minister as “encumbered” must be conveyed to the local municipality for park or other public recreational purposes and shall be deemed to count towards the parkland contribution.

Site plan approval

The Act requires that any site plan applications submitted on or after April 14, 2022, must be delegated to an “authorized person” (defined as an officer, employee, or agent of the municipality) for approval. The Act also introduces a new process to determine when an application for site plan control is deemed complete, amends the appeal timeline for a complete site plan application from 30 days to 60 days, and permits municipalities to pass by-laws that require applicants to engage in pre-consultation prior to submitting an application for site plan approval.

Subdivision control

The Act allows municipalities to extend draft plan approval for plans of subdivision that have lapsed under specific conditions. Where approval of a plan of subdivision lapses before an extension is given, the approval authority may deem the approval not to have lapsed unless: (1) five or more years have passed since the approval lapsed, (2) the approval has previously been deemed not to have lapsed under the subsection providing municipalities with the right to extend draft plan approval for plans of subdivision that have lapsed, or (3) an agreement has been entered into for the sale of the land governed by the approved draft plan of subdivision. The Act also provides the Minister with the ability to pass regulations that prevent the approval authority from imposing any conditions on draft plan of subdivision approval that are specified in the regulation. This power may potentially be used by the Minister in order to help “create a common, province-wide definition of plan of subdivision and standard set of conditions”, as set out in Recommendation 23 of the Housing Affordability Task Force Report.

Additional amendments

The Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act and the New Home Construction Licensing Act, 2017 are amended to enhance protections for homebuyers from unethical development practices. Specifically, amendments to the New Home Construction Licensing Act, 2017 address a regime of fines and administrative penalties for developers and builders that engage in behaviour that contravenes the legislation or fails to comply with the code of ethics for licensees.

Some technical amendments were made to the Development Charges Act, 1997 requiring the treasurer’s report relating to development charge by-laws and reserve funds to be available to the public online or other prescribed means.

The Act also introduced changes to the Planning Act (but the provision is to come into force on a day to be named by proclamation) allowing the Minister to make regulations regarding the types of securities that can be used to secure municipal requirements in the development approvals process, including surety bonds or other instruments to be used to secure an obligation imposed by the municipality.

Takeaways and impacts on the land development community

The province continues to take steps in line with its commitment to making the development process faster, easier, and more efficient, in order to increase overall housing supply in Ontario. The impacts of these changes remain to be seen, but the province appears to be taking a cautious approach, refraining from implementing some of the more controversial recommendations from the Housing Affordability Task Force Report. For example, the Act does not implement the recommendation to limit exclusionary zoning through the implementation of province-wide “as of right” zoning that would permit the development of residential housing for up to four units and up to four storeys on a single residential lot. This recommendation is open to consultation on the Environmental Registry of Ontario until April 29, 2022. As are other potential changes related to matters such as increasing the missing middle, addressing housing needs in rural and Northern Ontario and financing for non-profit housing developers. We anticipate more significant changes to follow the upcoming provincial election, if not sooner.

Dentons will continue to monitor and report on these developments. If you have any questions about how these changes impact you or your business, please contact Katarzyna Sliwa or any member of our Municipal Planning, Land Use, and Development Law group.