Spring Forward: Ontario’s Push for Development – Streamlining Planning, Enhancing Transit Infrastructure with Bill 17 and Other Measures this Spring 2025

Amendments to Planning Act and City of Toronto Act, 2006 to introduce provincial oversight and standardization into complete application requirements for development applications

• Introduction of requirement for Ministerial written approval for the addition, amendment or revocation of any complete application requirements in official plans; this applies to official plan amendment, zoning by-law amendment, site plan, plan of subdivision and consent applications

The requirement for written approval is temporary, with the Bill pre-emptively providing for the repeal of this provision, to come into force a day to be proclaimed

• Introduction of regulation making power governing the information and material that may be required to complete an application, including specifying information or material that may or may not be required and providing that any such requirements or prohibitions prevail over local official plan policies

The province’s proposed regulation (see here) would prohibit sun/shadow, wind, urban design, and lighting information and material from being required as part of a complete application

• Introduction of regulation making power to prescribe that information and material submitted by persons authorized to practice a prescribed profession will be deemed to meet applicable complete application requirement

Public school uses are now permitted as of right in serviced areas where residential uses are permitted and portables are now exempt from site plan control on school sites regardless of the age of the school site

• Amendments to the Planning Act prohibit official plan policies and zoning by-laws that have the effect of prohibiting the use of urban residential land for a school board’s elementary and secondary schools and its ancillary uses (such as daycares); any by-laws to the contrary are deemed to be of no force and effect
• Amendments to the Planning Act and City of Toronto Act, 2006 exempt the placement of a portable classroom on a school site of a district school board from site plan control

• Minimum setbacks from parcel boundaries on urban residential land (subject to certain exceptions) can vary up to a prescribed percentage, without need for a Planning Act approval

The province’s proposed regulation (see here) sets this variance as 10%

• Section 47 of the Planning Act, which authorizes Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZOs) has been amended to include the power to impose conditions and enter into agreements, registrable on title (against the land), and enforceable against the owner; this is similar to the powers the Minister had under the short-lived Section 34.1 municipality request/community infrastructure and housing accelerator orders (CIHAs)

• Residential development that is not rental (ownership etc.) will now benefit from deferral of development charge (DC) payment to occupancy, similar to the rental housing development, but will not benefit from installment provisions
• An additional regulation making power permits the province to prescribe financial securities a municipality could require to secure payment of deferred DCs
• New express permission to pay a DC before it is due without an early payment agreement
• Repeal of authority to require payment of interest on installments (transitioned to permit the continued accrual of interest prior to June 5, 2025); the authority to impose interest for deferred payment (between complete application and first payment) remains
• The provision of the DC Act which provided for immediate payment of a DC for a deferred development type (institutional, rental housing development) is repealed

• A development that is subject to a frozen DC rate benefits from the current rate at payment if such prevailing rate is lower than the frozen rate, enabling applicants to benefit from recent municipal actions to reduce DC charges
• New regulation making powers to:
  • Define local services to support consistency across the province
  • Prescribe limits or exceptions to eligible capital costs
  • Prescribe methodology for determining “benefit to existing”
  • Permit grouping of prescribed service categories for the purposes of DC credits to ensure builders that complete municipal works receive credit against payable DCs
• Long term care homes are now statutorily exempt from the DC Act (transitioned to exclude DCs payable before June 5, 2025 but eliminate requirement to pay future installments payable after June 5, 2025)
• Similar to prior recent DC Act amendments, Bill 17 reduces the procedural requirements for amendments to DC bylaws to repeal or amend by-law expiration dates, repeal indexing, or decrease DCs

• Provincial review of proposed building innovations is eliminated where federal review has or is intended to occur
• BC Act is amended to expressly restrict the Ontario Building Materials Evaluation Commission’s power to authorize the use of any innovative material, system or building design, if the Canadian Construction Materials Centre of the National Research Council of Canada has examined or expressed its intention to examine such material, system or design
•  BC Act is amended to restrict the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing authority to make rulings approving the use of innovative materials, systems or building designs evaluated by a materials evaluation body designated in the building code (i.e. the Canadian Construction Materials Centre)

• BCA amended to confirm that municipal by-law powers under the Municipal Act, 2001 and the City of Toronto Act, 2006 do not authorize by-laws respecting the construction or demolition of buildings

As the BC Act and Building Code already supersede municipal by-laws, the potential impact or relevance of this “clarification” is unknown.  Municipal authority to pass by-laws relating to the protection or conservation of the environment remain.

• Bill 17 extends Metrolinx’s powers and rights under the Building Transit Faster Act, 2020 to all provincial transit projects; all Metrolinx projects will have the potential benefit of an expedited expropriation process and access to mechanisms to better ensure utility coordination and municipal access
• Under the Metrolinx Act, 2006 the Minister of Transportation on behalf of itself or Metrolinx may direct a municipality or its municipal agencies to provide information and data that may be required to support the development of a provincial transit project or transit-oriented community project (TOC project)
• Similarly, under the Ministry of Infrastructure Act, 2011, the Minister of Infrastructure on behalf of itself or Ontario Infrastructure and Lands Corporation (IO) may direct a municipality or its municipal agencies to provide information and data
• Amendments to the Transit-Oriented Communities Act, 2020 changes the responsible Minister from the Minister of Transportation to the Minister of Infrastructure, expands the definition of priority transit project, removes  requirements for Lieutenant Governor in Council approval for certain Metrolinx dealings, permits the delegation of Ministerial powers to IO, and provides broad authority to the minister or its delegates to enter into agreements respecting TOC land

As of May 8, 2025 through Order in Council 589/2025 (see here), the Minister of Infrastructure has been given the authority to issue MZO’s under section 47 of the Planning Act in respect of transit-oriented community land designated under the Transit-Oriented Communities Act, 2020

See our full Cassels Comment on Bill 5 here

• Introduction of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2025 which permits the designation of projects and proponents (subject to any conditions) within designated zones (to be determined by regulation), which would be exempt from any requirements specified, including provincial legislation and by-laws
• Further amendments to 8 statutes including the Ontario Heritage Act, Environmental Assessment Act, Mining Act, Environmental Protection Act, and Endangered Species Act, 2007

Implementation of the new Special Economic Zones Act, 2025 is TBD, subject to regulations yet to come

The province has stated it will first utilize this Act to advance mining and critical minerals in the Ring of Fire

• Amendments to two regulations, O. Reg 63/16 under the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) and O. Reg 387/04 under the Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA) to eliminate need for requirement to obtain a Permit to Take Water (PTTW) in certain circumstances; under the EPA, the Environmental Activity and Sector Registry (EASR) threshold for construction dewatering has been increased and under OWRA, the volume threshold for low-risk foundation drainage systems has been increased

• Previously unconstrained and awaiting prescribed maximums for several years, inclusionary zoning requirements (applicable in major transit station areas) are now capped in two ways:

1. Prescribing 5% as the maximum percent of units or total floor area that are part of the development that must be affordable housing units
2. Prescribing 25 years as the maximum period of time for which affordable housing units would be maintained as affordable

The Province has indicated the definitions of “affordable residential unit” in the DC Act and “affordable” Provincial Planning Statement 2024 can be used (see  here)