Summary#

Bill 109, the More Homes for Everyone Act, 2022, is enacted as Chapter 12 of Ontario’s 2022 statutes. It amends five existing laws: the City of Toronto Act, 2006, the Development Charges Act, 1997, the New Home Construction Licensing Act, 2017, the Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act and the Planning Act. Its stated goal is to address housing, development and other matters; the law does not guarantee that more homes will be built.

• Municipalities must tell applicants whether certain site-plan applications are complete, and may refuse to consider them until required plans, information and fees are received. Applicants or municipalities can ask the Ontario Land Tribunal to resolve some completeness disputes.
• For specified municipal planning decisions, applicants may receive 50%, 75% or all of their fee back if the municipality misses the relevant decision deadline by the periods set in the law. Site-plan and other application types have different refund schedules.
• At a municipality’s request, the Minister may make or amend a land-use order using the municipality’s zoning powers, with changes the Minister considers appropriate. Such an order cannot cover Greenbelt Area land and may override provincial plans, policy statements and official plans.
• The law changes rules for referring plans to the Ontario Land Tribunal, reviewing community-benefits-charge by-laws, and parkland requirements on transit-oriented community land. It also creates new reporting duties for municipalities and planning boards when regulations require reports or the Minister requests information.
• New-home licensing and warranty laws gain stronger complaint, education, fine and administrative-penalty powers. Warranty expiration extensions may be set by regulation or, subject to regulation and ministerial approval, by the warranty corporation.
• The bill also requires public access to municipalities’ development-charge statements and allows future regulations to let landowners or applicants choose specified surety bonds or other instruments to secure planning obligations.

What it means for you#

• Municipalities and planning applicants: Municipalities must follow new completeness and fee-refund rules for covered applications. For site-plan applications, the law lengthens a referenced decision period from 30 to 60 days and sets refunds for missed deadlines. Refund rules for other application types use their own deadlines and schedules. Exact start dates differ by provision.
• Developers and landowners: A municipal council may ask the Minister for a land-use order, but the Minister decides whether to make it and may modify it. The order can include conditions; an agreement about those conditions may be registered against the land and enforced against later owners. The order does not apply to land in the Greenbelt Area.
• People affected by a proposed plan: The Minister may refer a plan for a Tribunal recommendation or a decision. If the Tribunal holds a hearing or other proceeding, notice must go to the municipality and people or public bodies that made submissions before the plan was adopted.
• New-home builders and licensees: The registrar may request complaint information, require education, issue a warning, refer a matter to the discipline committee, or take other listed action. Licensees must provide information requested about complaints. Higher fines and penalties may apply, including increases based on monetary benefits.
• New-home buyers: The law allows rules that could extend some warranty expiration dates for missing or unfinished items, or later work or materials. It does not itself automatically extend a warranty.
• Taxpayers and the public: The law does not create a general housing benefit, tax or front-line housing service. Municipalities must make development-charge statements publicly available.

Money#

No publicly available information on the bill’s total cost or expected savings.

• Municipalities may have to refund application fees under the new rules; the bill gives no estimate of the amounts.
• Municipalities and planning boards must provide requested planning information and report on matters set by regulation. No staffing or cost estimate is provided.
• New-home fines and penalties can rise, including above stated limits where a monetary benefit is involved. The bill does not estimate revenue from them.
• The surety-bond provisions require regulations and are not in force until proclaimed. The bill provides no cost estimate for them.

What is unclear#

• The parent Acts were not supplied, so I could not verify how the changes compare with all current rules or how they interact with existing programs.
• Regulations will set some required information, reporting, penalty details, warranty-extension conditions and other rules. Their contents are not in the bill.
• The bill does not set a time limit on the Minister’s power to suspend certain plan-decision periods, or explain how often that power will be used.
• The Minister’s land-use orders can depart from key planning documents, but the bill does not set detailed limits on when the Minister should make an order. Guidelines must be published.
• The bill does not estimate how many applications will receive refunds, how often the Tribunal will be involved, or the resources needed to carry out the new duties.

Case for#

• The bill appears intended to make some planning decisions more accountable to applicants by requiring completeness notices and fee refunds when municipalities miss specified deadlines.
• Letting a municipality request a Minister’s order could provide another way to make a requested land-use change, while requiring public notice and consultation before the council makes its request.
• Stronger complaint and penalty powers could help address breaches of rules by licensed home builders.
• Regular reviews of community-benefits-charge by-laws could prompt municipalities to reconsider whether those by-laws need revision.

Case against#

• Refunds may not make decisions faster if municipalities lack the staff or resources to meet deadlines; the bill does not provide a costed plan for that capacity.
• Ministerial orders can override provincial plans, policy statements and official plans. The law does not spell out detailed criteria for when that power should be used.
• The new application-completeness steps may delay the start of decision timelines when information is disputed or outstanding.
• The bill leaves important details to future regulations, including reporting duties and some penalty rules, so the full effects are not clear from the Act alone.