Hamilton City Council expresses concerns over Bill 109, More Homes for Everyone Act, at Special Council meeting

HAMILTON, ON - At a special meeting today, Hamilton City Council discussed concerns over the impact of the provincial proposed Bill 109, More Homes for Everyone Act, 2022.

On March 30, 2022, the province announced the More Homes for Everyone Plan, and introduced Bill 109, More Homes for Everyone Act, 2022. Bill 109 includes changes intended to curb non-resident land speculation, strengthen consumer protection for new home purchasers, help to build more housing using provincially owned lands, and accelerate planning processes to catalyze an increase in housing supply. The Bill follows the Province’s Housing Affordability Task Force report released on February 8, 2022.

The proposed legislation could have several unintended consequences for Ontario municipalities including:

• Increased Provincial jurisdiction on local planning processes and decisions;
• Penalizing municipalities for decision-making timelines that are not wholly within the control of municipalities;
• Forcing municipalities to reduce or eliminate important aspects of the review process, including significantly reducing opportunities for public input on new development applications;
• Shifting the cost of new development from developers to existing ratepayers, by reducing a municipalities’ ability to collect development application fees;
• Having more development proposals adjudicated at the Province’s Ontario Lands Tribunal, which could lead to longer review times and delays.

The City report released today shares a number of actions already taken by the City to increase housing supply and housing affordability:

• Pre-zoned the Hamilton Light Rail Transit (LRT) corridor;
• Adopted new commercial and mixed-use zoning;
• Updated downtown secondary plan and pre-zoned downtown;
• Introduced City-wide zoning to allow for Secondary Units and Detached Units (laneway housing);
• Currently bringing forward zoning by-law changes to allow up to four units on a lot.

The Special Council meeting concluded with Council receiving the report containing staff responses on each amendment of Bill 109. In addition, the report requests the Mayor submit a letter to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and ERO outlining the City of Hamilton’s comments regarding Bill 109; and that staff are to report back to the June 14, 2022 Planning Committee meeting with amendments to the Urban Hamilton Official Plan and Rural Hamilton Official Plan, any required policies and procedures to give effect to the proposed changes, and undertake an analyses on staffing impacts across the organization as well as any financial implications should the Bill pass. 

The Province has posted Bill 109 and associated documents on Ontario’s Regulatory Registry and is accepting public input on all schedule changes until April 29, 2022.

The City encourages the province to consider amendments to the proposed Bill that would reduce the likelihood of increased Ontario Lands Tribunal litigation and instead add mechanisms that ensure proposed developments are built in a reasonable time and to consider more tools and funding opportunities to increase the supply of deeply affordable housing.