Some Ontario mayors are fed up with the constant updates to Ontario's land-use planning regime.
City staff are spending too much time getting up to speed on the ever-evolving reality and not enough time approving housing projects, which contributes to the housing crisis.
"One of the things I think the provincial government could do (to help with housing shortages) is make whatever changes they're really looking at making and then please leave us alone," said Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie during a panel discussion hosted by the Residential Construction Council of Ontario industry association.
"There have been so many changes that have come from the provincial government. That's bogging down our staff from being focused on planning approvals for actual developments and housing, to instead focus all of their time on sending in consultation after consultation after consultation," Guthrie added.
"I'm not suggesting that more doesn't need to be done. I'm saying, 'Okay, whatever it is, do it.' And please let us amend our processes and regulations here to align with what they want to do. But then give us some breathing room."
Wilmot Mayor Natasha Salonen, who rose to stardom for not being able to afford a home in the city she runs, agreed.
"The province, whatever they're going to do, please just do it and then move on so that we can do our jobs," she said.
The Tories have tabled five bills since 2019 as part of a promise to make annual updates to Ontario's land-use planning regime to speed up home building. That doesn't include the now-defunct Greenbelt land swap and changes to the provincial policy statement.
They also promised to continue releasing at least one bill a year during the rest of their tenure to get to the 1.5 million homes by 2031 target.
Housing and Municipal Affairs Minister Paul teased the next suite of measures shortly after taking over the file in early September. Some of those ideas, plus ones generated during fall consultations with municipalities, will inform another new bill set to come in 2024, he said.
Mayors aren't the only ones frustrated with the state of flux.
The changing regulatory environment — meant to make home-building faster — actually serves as a disincentive to developers, according to housing expert Mike Moffatt, founding director of the PLACE Centre.
If a developer who owns a piece of land currently zoned only for single-family housing thinks the province could introduce new rules in the future to allow more density as of right — in line with recommendations from the housing affordability task force — it makes more sense to just sit on the land rather than go through the lengthy rezoning process to build an apartment or condo.
"It basically turns land developers into speculators ... Instead of trying to develop these properties and work with builders, they're trying to figure out what the rules are going to be two years from now," he said in a podcast interview with The Trillium earlier this year.
It's not just the annual housing bills taking up Salonen's — and her planning department's — time.
Wilmot is in Waterloo Region, which — along with several other upper-tier municipalities — was supposed to have a provincial facilitator appointed to determine if the regional model was still working. Those plans were scrapped after former housing and municipal affairs minister Steve Clark resigned over his role in the Greenbelt scandal, though the Peel dissolution is still going forward.
A legislative committee is now set to consider whether other single-tier municipalities can stand alone.
"It's really been a nightmare," she said. "Because planning, we've been told, is being downloaded to our lower tier, which is great, with no end in sight or specific date on when that's happening."
"It's just created friction between our regional planning departments, our local planning, and confusion, frankly, for our developers on where do they go, what steps and hurdles do they need to go through," she added. "So if we could just get a solid answer on what that is and move on, that would be fantastic."
