Articles 2025

This paper was paired with a presentation given by Nancy Smith at the Ontario Bar Association’s Ontario Legal Conference: Municipal, Planning and Environmental Law program held on February 6 & 7, 2025.

Community benefits charges (“CBC”) are a new funding tool authorized under s. 37 of Ontario’s Planning Act (the “Act”) that allow municipalities to impose a charge against higher density development to pay for capital costs related to developments and redevelopments. CBCs can only be levied against mid- to high-density buildings that are five or more storeys and contain 10 or more residential units.

On Friday, November 8, 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada (the “SCC”) released two unanimous decisions, Auer v. Auer, 2024 SCC 36 (“Auer”) and TransAlta Generation Partnership v. Alberta, 2024 SCC 37 (“TransAlta”) clarifying the standard of review for judicial review of subordinate legislation, including ministerial regulations. The below article explores how these cases may affect Municipal and Planning Law matters in Ontario.

On September 16, 2024, the Province of Ontario proposed a new regulation under the Planning Act that would authorize the use of pay-on-demand surety bonds (PSB) with prescribed features to secure development-related obligations.

On August 20, 2024, the Ontario Land Tribunal (“OLT” or “Tribunal”) launched consultations on proposed changes to its Rules of Practice and Procedure (the “Proposed Rules”). Consultations ran from August 20 to September 27, 2024. On October 1, the Tribunal announced it was reviewing the feedback received during consultation and would provide further details once that review was complete.

On August 20, 2024, the province of Ontario published the new Provincial Planning Statement, 2024, a province-wide policy instrument that, once in force, will replace both the Provincial Policy Statement, 2020 and A Place to Grow: Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. It will come into force on October 20, 2024.

When a municipality seeks injunctive relief to restrain the breach of a by-law pursuant to section 440 of the Municipal Act, 2001, the municipality enjoys different rights versus a party seeking standard injunctive relief flowing from the equitable jurisdiction of the Superior Court of Justice.

In determining valuation of an expropriated interest, arbitral tribunals must consider existing planning and zoning regulations. However, the admissibility of evidence concerning post-expropriation planning and zoning changes can often become a pivotal issue in determining the probable highest and best use, as well as the market value of the subject property.

For the professionalism portion of the Law Society’s recent Eight Minute Municipal Lawyer program, I was asked to reflect on managing uncertainty in the land use planning process. Here are my top five tips, most of which come from advice I have received over my longish career. I note that these are written from my perspective as a private practitioner, but I think that the majority are applicable to lawyers practicing in-house as well.

On April 10, 2024, the Provincial Government introduced Bill 185, the Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, 2024. Currently in its second reading, the stated goals of the Bill include expediting housing construction by cutting red tape and streamlining approvals.