The Ontario government has new rules for how and when it can permit development, overstepping conservation authorities tasked with watershed protection
This is the Ford government, so it stands to reason that this was entirely a change that was brought on by developers… And considering this mirrors what was previously done, I’m 99% sure it is. Unfortunately, having the province to go to in order to override a CA is something that both homeowners and municipal governments are going to find useful because of how the CAs have been operating for years… running rough-shod over municipal development plans or property owners plans to enjoy the use of their property. The fact of the matter is that not everyone owns hundreds of acres, so a 30 m setback from any ‘water’ more significant than a puddle may mean that you can’t make changes, improvements or in some cases, repairs to your entire property.
Considering that the original plan was to strip powers away from the CAs to only managing their parks, this seems to be a reasonable situation - it only formalizes the powers the government gave themselves last time when the province had to step in on overriding a CA to allow a warehouse going on a sensitive wetland the CA identified on private industrial-zoned land. It gives them blanket power to do the same thing they’ve already done in that one-off situation (although the mechanism will be different - they won’t just make a law telling the CA to issue a permit). The law does indicate that the ministry still has to consider the same things the CA does, so it’s possible that a Ministry’s ‘overrule’ (or even bypass as the law would allow) can been challenged in court at least.
This is the Ford government, so it stands to reason that this was entirely a change that was brought on by developers… And considering this mirrors what was previously done, I’m 99% sure it is. Unfortunately, having the province to go to in order to override a CA is something that both homeowners and municipal governments are going to find useful because of how the CAs have been operating for years… running rough-shod over municipal development plans or property owners plans to enjoy the use of their property. The fact of the matter is that not everyone owns hundreds of acres, so a 30 m setback from any ‘water’ more significant than a puddle may mean that you can’t make changes, improvements or in some cases, repairs to your entire property.
Considering that the original plan was to strip powers away from the CAs to only managing their parks, this seems to be a reasonable situation - it only formalizes the powers the government gave themselves last time when the province had to step in on overriding a CA to allow a warehouse going on a sensitive wetland the CA identified on private industrial-zoned land. It gives them blanket power to do the same thing they’ve already done in that one-off situation (although the mechanism will be different - they won’t just make a law telling the CA to issue a permit). The law does indicate that the ministry still has to consider the same things the CA does, so it’s possible that a Ministry’s ‘overrule’ (or even bypass as the law would allow) can been challenged in court at least.