Summary#

Bill 60, the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025, is an omnibus law that amends existing Ontario Acts and creates the Water and Wastewater Public Corporations Act, 2025. It has received Royal Assent, but some schedules take effect only on a later date set by regulation or order. Its stated goal is to speed up construction and transit, reduce gridlock and help tenants and landlords resolve disputes faster.

• The new water law lets the Minister designate corporations to provide municipal water and sewage services. If a municipality is covered, it must provide those services through the corporation from the date set by regulation.
• Planning and transit rules change: Metrolinx’s access powers cover transit operation and maintenance as well as construction; the Minister gains new powers over some planning decisions and agreements; and municipalities face limits on reducing motor-vehicle lanes for bike lanes or other prescribed purposes.
• Development charge rules change, and a municipality may allow a transit station charge on residential development to be paid at occupancy. The charge may be secured with a financial instrument.
• Landlord and Tenant Board rules change, including a 15-day deadline to request a review of a Board decision or order. Some changes require regulations and a start date set by order.
• Other changes address driver’s licence and photo-card applications, construction holdbacks, sewage works on agricultural land, towing charges, and the transfer of Peel’s water and sewage utility jurisdiction.

What it means for you#

• Municipalities: If designated under the new water law, a municipality must transfer employees, assets, liabilities, rights and obligations to a designated corporation by the date set in regulations. A transfer by-law is binding without anyone’s consent. Peel’s water and sewage utility jurisdiction is to transfer to Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon on a date set by the Minister, or January 1, 2029, if no date is set before then.
• Water and sewage customers: A designated corporation may impose and collect fees or charges. Unpaid amounts, including interest, may be added to the property’s tax roll and collected like taxes. The law does not set specific rates.
• Tenants and landlords: For a qualifying section 48 notice of termination, a landlord would not have to compensate the tenant or offer another unit if the notice gives at least 120 days and ends on the last day of a tenancy period or fixed term. A tenant raising issues at a rent-arrears hearing must generally pay half the arrears claimed before the hearing. The Act also sets a 15-day deadline to seek a Board review, unless the Board extends it.
• Drivers and photo-card applicants: The Minister may require evidence of Ontario residence and legal presence in Canada. For prescribed licence or vehicle classes, the Minister may also require evidence that the applicant can legally work in Canada as a driver.
• Municipalities and people using their roads: Municipalities generally must not reduce marked motor-vehicle lanes for bike lanes or other prescribed purposes, unless regulations allow it. The Minister may reimburse reasonable costs for requested municipal support, but need not pay the cost of installing bike lanes. The law also says certain listed highway actions are not, and never were, expropriation or injurious affection (a legal basis for compensation).
• Developers and homebuyers: A municipality’s transit station charge by-law may require a charge on residential development to be paid in full when an occupancy permit is issued or the building is first occupied, whichever comes first. This does not itself impose a charge in every municipality or on every home.

Money#

No cost estimate is available in the supplied material.

• The new water law allows corporations to collect fees or charges and allows the Minister to set rules about them; it does not provide specific rates or an implementation cost.
• The law permits payment for members of a Transit-Oriented Communities advisory panel. No amount is given.
• A municipality may require financial security for a residential transit station charge. No amount is specified.
• The materials do not estimate public spending, savings, or costs to municipalities, landlords, tenants, or businesses.

What is unclear#

• The supplied material does not show which provisions that need a later order or regulation have since taken effect. No publicly available information.
• The water law leaves key choices to future regulations, including which municipalities and corporations are covered, how they are governed, how shares are issued, and what fees or rates apply.
• The bill does not give detailed rules for several new processes, including tenant payment timelines, local-service policies, or exemptions from the lane-reduction rule. Some of these details are left to regulations.
• The parent Acts were not supplied, so the full current-law context and all interactions with existing rules could not be independently verified.

Case for#

• The bill appears intended to remove delays in transit construction and ongoing operation by widening Metrolinx’s access powers and shortening some notice periods.
• A possible argument for the water corporation law is that one corporation could plan, maintain and invest in water and sewage infrastructure for the municipalities it serves. The law assigns it duties to provide safe, reliable and sustainable services.
• Standard rules for development charges and local-service policies could make clearer which works are treated as local services and how costs are accounted for.
• Setting a deadline for Board review requests, and defining some hearing requirements in advance, could make parts of the dispute process more predictable.

Case against#

• The water law gives the Minister wide powers over transfers, corporate governance, shares and fees, while some important rules are left to future regulations. The Act also limits legal claims related to its implementation, with exceptions including judicial review and constitutional remedies.
• The bill does not set out detailed protections or public processes for deciding water rates, transferring staff and assets, or resolving disputes over a transfer.
• The lane rule restricts municipal decisions about marked road lanes, while the scope of exceptions depends partly on regulations.
• Requiring tenants to pay half of claimed rent arrears before raising issues at a hearing could make it harder for some tenants to have those issues heard. The bill leaves some payment details to regulations.
• Declaring listed highway actions not to be expropriation or injurious affection could limit compensation claims connected to those actions. The bill’s materials do not explain how this affects particular cases.