Twenty-two minister’s zoning orders issued by the Ford government are on the chopping block, with eight given to projects not involving housing facing the possibility of being yanked or changed by early in the New Year.
MZOs are a tool the provincial government can deploy to overrule local planning decisions and bylaws, often with the intention of fast-tracking development projects. The Ford government has utilized them to an unprecedented degree, issuing more than 100 since 2019 — more than every previous government combined. Its handling of MZOs is also being looked into by Ontario’s auditor general.
Fourteen of the 22 MZOs under threat are for projects involving housing; the government intends to monitor their progress over the next 18 months and may revoke or amend them if the projects don’t significantly chug along.
Here’s the skinny on the details behind each in-question MZO and why they could be undone.
About half of the housing-related MZOs are for projects by Flato Developments.
Shakir Rehmatullah, founder and president of Flato, made headlines for a Las Vegas trip involving multiple Ford government insiders. He also attended the pre-marriage fundraiser Premier Doug Ford hosted ahead of his daughter’s 2022 wedding, along with the wedding itself.
Two of the MZOs are for Flato’s proposed development in Dundalk, in Grey County, of three the government granted on March 31, 2022. The concern it’s now citing is a lack of water or wastewater servicing.
When Rehmatullah pitched the plan that year to the local council shortly before the province granted the orders, he said it would take 15 to 20 years to completely build it out, according to a local news report from the time.
Another being cited for a lack of water or wastewater servicing is for Flato’s development in Beeton, in New Tecumseth.
Two more — cited for the same lack of water or wastewater servicing — are Flato projects in Whitchurch-Stouffville. The first was pitched as a plan to develop 353 seniors' units on 8.4 hectares of land, and the second 1,964 units outside the Town’s settlement area boundary.
Near the proposed Flato development in Whitchurch-Stouffville, there’s another MZO for a project proposed by ORCA equity for a 1,550-home greenfield subdivision, also being monitored for a lack of water or wastewater servicing. Rehmatullah played a role in assisting the removal of some of this land from the Greenbelt, Ontario's integrity commissioner wrote in his report on the removals.
A sixth Flato project getting extra monitoring is in Kawartha Lakes, with the government citing “substantial progress not made on part of project lands.” While the local council approved the original MZO, it came out against a proposed expansion earlier this year.
Another MZO in Kawartha Lakes is for the mixed-use development near the Lindsay Golf & Country Club. Bromont Homes and Melody Garden proposed it in 2021, partially modelled on Flato’s MZO request in the area. It was flagged for a similar lack of progress as the Flato project.
Another of the MZOs was granted to a mixed-use residential and commercial project planned by SmartCentres REIT, a major real estate investment company, in Cambridge. When the MZO was issued in October 2020, one of the Ford government insiders involved in the controversy around the Las Vegas trip — Jae Truesdell — was SmartCentres’ director of corporate affairs in between his stints in the government.
Back in 2020, SmartCentres said it would start the project immediately, but it’s now flagged by the government for “lack of downstream implementation.”
Another flagged for the same issue, as well as a lack of water or wastewater servicing, is the Poplar Regional Health & Wellness Village proposed by Live Work Learn Play Inc. and Di Poce Management.
However, just this month the developers signed a memorandum of understanding with the town, CollingwoodToday reported.
The project is to include a regional health and wellness campus, a market district, long-term care/assisted living facilities, bioscience and medical research facilities, an eco-wellness centre, a regional transit hub, student and workforce housing and sports medicine clinics, the news outlet reported.
Another MZO involves John Mutton, referred to by Ontario’s integrity commissioner as “Mr. X” before later being confirmed as the anonymous success fee-charging lobbyist, who was working with Romspen Investment Corp., owner of Kawartha Downs Raceway, around when its project was granted an MZO. It was planned to include an agricultural fairground, 588 new homes, and a licensed casino. It’s flagged for a lack of water or wastewater servicing.
Two of the MZOs now getting monitored were for developments that include long-term care projects.
An Innisfill MZO was for a long-term care home, a home for special care, and a retirement home operated by Tollendale Village. It would’ve been the company’s second facility in the region and would’ve been home to 388 retirement apartments, 160 long-term care beds, and a 52-unit assisted living facility.
In Brampton, an MZO for the Niwaas Campus of Care, a planned 160-bed long-term care home, plus a pharmacy and medical office, is under review. The project was founded by the city’s deputy mayor, Harkirat Singh but, according to the province, has suffered from a “lack of downstream implementation.”
Meanwhile, a Belleville MZO was intended to speed up approvals to turn a golf course into a $1.5-billion, year-round resort with 3,000 houses with a 20-year construction timeline. Council requested Clark issued the MZO to turn the golf course into a resort community with residential and mixed-use development, but it’s since been flagged for lack of water or wastewater servicing.
Too late for eight?
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing posted notices on the Environmental Registry of Ontario on Wednesday proposing the revocation of seven MZOs issued to developments without housing components, plus the amendment of an eighth. Minister Paul Calandra is expected to decide whether to follow through with undoing or modifying them after public consultations on each conclude on Jan. 27.
Two under threat of revocation are for projects in Markham.
One of these MZOs came after Markham’s council asked the province to issue it to allow sports and educational facilities to be built at 3565 19th Avenue, a property next to Greenbelt land that the city owns.
A developer believed to potentially be interested in purchasing the land to build an expansive private school sold a private sports facility it had owned to the City of Vaughan last year.
The future of the MZO issued to 3565 19th Avenue on Sep. 9, 2022, is in doubt due to a lack of downstream implementation.
Another Markham MZO hanging in the balance was issued on Aug. 27, 2021, to facilitate building a new film studio at 3143 19th Avenue, which is between Greenbelt lands.
Markham’s council endorsed a request for the MZO that came from a business partner of the project’s developer. The provincial government is considering revoking it over a lack of water or wastewater servicing.
The lone non-housing MZO that the government is considering amending — rather than revoking entirely — was also issued to a development project involving a film studio, but in Pickering. The MZO issued on Oct. 30, 2020, applies to land where the massive Durham Live development, which features a casino and hotels that have opened, is ongoing.
The MZO in Pickering was already amended after Amazon, which had been interested in operating a warehouse on the site, opted for elsewhere. The warehouse plans had also come up against legal challenges launched by environmental groups.
A change is being proposed to the MZO to remove a portion affecting land where documents submitted to Pickering’s council in March 2020 showed amphitheatre stages were to be built. The provincial government said it’s proposing this amendment because substantial progress hasn’t been made on this part of the project.
Two of the MZOs facing possible revocation in the New Year were meant to help the construction of agriculture-related manufacturing facilities in McNab/Braeside. Former housing minister Steve Clark said in a news release announcing the MZOs on July 30, 2021 that they would help bring 600 jobs to the area. These MZOs’ futures are up in the air due to a lack of downstream implementation and a shortage of water or wastewater servicing.
In October 2020, during the height of the pandemic, the provincial government granted an MZO for an 82-acre medical manufacturing park in Oro-Medonte, following a request from its council. The “medical innovation park” was planned to be home to manufacturing facilities that would make and distribute PPE and other medical goods. The property, however, was listed for sale in early 2022, leading the housing minister’s office to promise at the time to “commence the process of revoking the MZO,” which may finally be followed through with.
Another proposed-for-revocation MZO issued in Brampton that its council endorsed after a request from a potential builder was granted on Jan. 28, 2022. The Gobind Marg Charitable Trust asked for it so a new “dignified academic and cultural institution” for the South Asian community could be built on property it purchased from the city, only to confront zoning hurdles.
The Brampton MZO may be taken away over the project’s lack of downstream implementation, which is also what puts Kingston MZO in doubt.
The Kingston MZO was granted on March 4, 2022, to allow a lithium-ion battery recycling facility to be built in an industrial park that’s being planned in the city. Li-Cycle, the company planning to build the plant, laid off 30 employees from its existing Kingston facility this fall and is already building another half-billion-dollar factory in Rochester, New York.
