The land use planning landscape continues to evolve and Fall 2024 has already seen the introduction of a series of significant changes to land use planning in Ontario. Within the last few weeks, we brought you Streamlining development and intensification: Guide to the new Provincial Planning Statement, which provided an overview of the new Provincial Policy Statement, 2024, that came into effect on October 20, 2024, and Unveiling the 2024 Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review: Building Ontario for You, which provided an overview of the Ontario government's fall economic statement, with a focus on key infrastructure-related announcements.

On November 5, 2024, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing (the Minister) proposed amendments to O.Reg. 525/97 under the Planning Act, a regulation which would exempt lower-tier municipalities in Durham Region, Waterloo Region and Niagara Region from the requirement to obtain the Minister's approval of most official plan amendments. Additionally, these three Regions are proposed to become upper-tier municipalities without planning responsibilities on January 1, 2025 (Durham Region and Waterloo Region) and March 31, 2025 (Niagara Region).

The proposed amendments are subject to a 30-day comment period, with comments due by December 5, 2024.

1. Background

a. O. Reg. 525/97

O. Reg. 525/97 is a long-standing regulation that exempts certain listed municipalities from the need to obtain the Minister's approval for official plan amendments under the Planning Act (subsection 1(1)). The specific municipalities subject to the exemption are identified in a schedule to the regulation and the exemption applies to official plan amendments commenced on or after the date set out next to the relevant municipality in the schedule.

b. Recent legislative changes

Under Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022, the Planning Act was amended to remove most planning functions from certain upper-tier municipalities, with an implementation date to follow at a later time. Specifically, Bill 23 distinguished between an upper-tier municipality with planning responsibilities and an upper-tier municipality without planning responsibilities and removed the requirement for certain municipalities previously known as "upper-tier municipalities," to approve official plans and official plan amendments of their lower-tier municipalities.

The Bill 23 changes applied to the Regional Municipality of Durham, Regional Municipality of Halton, Regional Municipality of Peel, County of Simcoe, Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Regional Municipality of Niagara and Regional Municipality of York.

Bill 185, Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024, subsequently instituted changes to stagger the implementation of upper-tier municipalities without planning responsibilities. Specifically, Bill 185 provided that:

• The Regional Municipality of Peel, Regional Municipality of Halton and Regional Municipality of York became upper-tier municipalities without planning responsibilities on July 1, 2024; and
• The County of Simcoe, the Regional Municipality of Durham, the Regional Municipality of Niagara and the Regional Municipality of Waterloo would become upper-tier municipalities without planning responsibilities at a future time, on dates to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.

For more on these changes, please see our September 2024 update, Part 4: Shovels in the ground for Ontario – Bill 23 still going strong and other legislative updates.

2. The current proposal

The Minister’s proposal to amend O. Reg. 525/97 includes a number of changes related to official plans, including:

1. Setting out intended proclamation dates for the Regional Municipality of Durham, the Regional Municipality of Niagara and the Regional Municipality of Waterloo to become “upper-tier municipalities without planning responsibilities;” and
2. Exempting official plan amendments of certain identified lower-tier municipalities from the need for the Minister's approval.

Proclamation dates for certain upper-tier municipalities without planning responsibilities

The proposal sets out the Ontario government’s intention related to the proclamation dates for some of the remaining regions identified to become upper-tier municipalities without planning responsibilities, namely:

• January 1, 2025: Regional Municipality of Durham and Regional Municipality of Waterloo; and
• March 31, 2025: Regional Municipality of Niagara.

This leaves the County of Simcoe as the only municipality where the implementation date to become an upper-tier municipality without planning responsibilities has not yet been provided. The proposal sets out that Simcoe would be subject to further notice and consultation under a separate regulatory amendment.

Exemptions for lower-tier municipalities from the need for ministerial approval

In support of the above noted changes to upper-tier municipalities, the proposal also sets out the intention to amend O. Reg. 525/97 to exempt most official plan amendments of certain identified lower-tier municipalities from the need for the Minister's approval. This proposed exemption is stated to apply to official plan amendments:

• Adopted on or after January 1, 2025 for:
• Regional Municipality of Durham: Cities of Oshawa and Pickering, towns of Whitby and Ajax, Municipality of Clarington and townships of Scugog, Uxbridge, and Brock.
• Regional Municipality of Waterloo: Cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo, and townships of North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich.
• Adopted on or after March 31, 2025 for:
• Regional Municipality of Niagara: Cities of Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Port Colborne, Thorold and Welland, towns of Fort Erie, Grimsby, Lincoln, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Pelham, and townships of Wainfleet and West Lincoln

As a result, the only official plans in these municipalities that would require ministerial approval after the respective dates noted above would be:

• new official plans;
• official plan amendments adopted in accordance with section 26 of the Planning Act; and
• official plan amendments addressing policies required in connection with a protected major transit station area.

Despite the proposed exemptions, the Minister would retain approval under the Planning Act to intervene where necessary to ensure all exempt official plan amendments are in accordance with provincial policy.

3. Insights

The proposed changes are of particular interest to those who work in the Regions of Durham, Waterloo and Niagara, as the timing is now set for their change to upper-tier municipalities without planning responsibilities. While these changes have been anticipated for several years, the Regions impacted by these changes will require time to adjust to the new requirements, once implemented.

Dentons will continue to monitor any further announcements and developments related to the constantly evolving land use planning landscape. Should you have any questions about any recent changes to housing and land use planning in Ontario and how they may impact your business, please contact Katarzyna (Kat) Sliwa, Isaiah Banach, Karen Sadler, Michael James or any member of Dentons' Municipal, Land Use Planning and Development team.