Government breaking promise to rein in OMB: NDP MPP Marchese

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Trinity-Spadina MPP Rosario Marchese slammed the government today for breaking its promise to rein in the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) and strengthen local authority over land use planning. Marchese said he was stunned to learn that OMB operations were explicitly excluded from the land use planning review announced yesterday in Fort York by Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Linda Jeffrey.

“Two months ago this government promised to make the OMB more accountable to communities, and they are breaking that promise,” said Marchese. “This government has abandoned OMB reform.”

“This process has nothing to do with communities or OMB accountability,” said Marchese. “This process seeks to transfer the costs of growth away from developers and to pressure municipalities into fast-tracking development applications.”

“The government’s review is framed around the interests of the development industry, not communities or the planning profession,” said Marchese. He pointed out that the discussion paper makes no mention of the role of Design Advisory Panels or Heritage Conservation Boards. There is no mention of the problem of giving OMB members with no environmental expertise authority over environmentally-sensitive issues.

The government’s guidelines for the review specifically restrict any consideration of “eliminating or changing the OMB’s operations, practices and procedures.”

Instead, the discussion paper focuses on the costs borne by developers such as development charges, parkland dedications and Section 37 funds. The paper suggests that such costs impede growth.

“How can the Minister stand in Fort York, literally surrounded by construction towers and concrete, and claim we suffer from a lack of development and too much parkland?” asked Marchese.

“The same government that sold 11 Wellesley to a developer instead of building a park is now saying parkland dedications are slowing down development — it’s outrageous,” said Marchese.

Marchese said the government has learned nothing from recent OMB decisions. In January, the OMB overruled Waterloo Region’s provincially-approved growth plan, and ignored the province’s own Places to Grow Act, by allowing a sprawling development more than ten times larger than what the rules allowed. In March, the OMB overruled Toronto’s planning staff, its Design Review Panel and its heritage experts to approve two condo towers in the Old Town of York. And in September, the OMB set aside court rulings and committee-of-adjustment decisions, and approved an illegally-built home addition in Trinity-Spadina.

The OMB is unique among the world’s planning appeals bodies in having broad policy-making powers, allowing it to change or modify planning policies as it sees fit. Bill 26 (2004) was supposed to ensure OMB decisions were consistent with provincial policy, but it remains up to the OMB to decide what “consistent” means. Marchese said recent OMB decisions prove that it is out of control.

“The OMB does not exist to uphold the rules. It makes up its own rules,” said Marchese. “The OMB is the problem, not too much parkland.”  

In March, Marchese introduced Bill 20, the Respect for Municipalities Act (City of Toronto), which would exempt the City of Toronto from the oversight of the OMB. The City of Toronto formally requested this exemption in 2012.