Bill 17: Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025
Part 1 – The Proposed Planning Act, Building Code Act and Related Changes
Introduction
On May 12, 2025, the new Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Honourable Rob Flack, introduced Bill 17: Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025 (“Bill 17”). Bill 17 aims to speed up housing approvals, reduce costs, streamline existing processes, and support infrastructure.
At the same time, Minister Flack announced that the Province will increase its investment in housing-enabling infrastructure by adding $400 million in immediate funding to the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund and the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Fund for a total of nearly $2.3 billion over four years.
Bill 17 was ordered for second reading and can be found here. Its release was accompanied by a technical briefing, which further describes the Province’s intent behind each proposed change as well as additional initiatives. Various proposals relating to Bill 17 were also posted on the Environmental Registry of Ontario (the “ERO”), including proposals in relation to future to-be-prescribed regulations:
- ERO-025-0461: Proposed Planning Act and City of Toronto Act, 2006 Changes (Schedules 3 and 7 of Bill 17 – Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025)
- ERO-025-0463: Proposed Regulation – As-of-right Variations from Setback Requirements
- ERO-025-0462: Proposed Regulations – Complete Application
- ERO-025-0450: Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025 – Amendment to the Building Transit Faster Act, 2020
- ERO-025-0504: Bill 17- Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025 – Accelerating Delivery of Transit-Oriented Communities
- Regulatory Registry 25-MMAH003: Changes to the Development Charges Act, 1997 to Simplify and Standardize the Development Charge (DC) Framework
As Bill 17 proposes to amend eight Acts, this blog constitutes Part 1 of Davies Howe’s review and summary of the proposed changes and includes Bill 17’s proposed amendments to the Planning Act, the Building Code Act, the City of Toronto Act, 2006 (the “CoT Act”) and related initiatives. Stay tuned for Part 2, which will outline the proposed changes to the development charge regime, and Part 3, which will discuss the proposed changes to accelerate transit and provincial infrastructure development.
Part 1 – The Proposed Planning Act, Building Code Act and Related Changes
Schedules 1, 3, and 7 of Bill 17 propose amendments to the Building Code Act, the CoT Act, and the Planning Act respectively. These amendments and the other initiatives set out below are described by the Province as attempts to streamline and standardize municipal development processes.
The Building Code Act and Municipal By-laws
Bill 17 proposes various changes to the Building Code Act to remove barriers for Canadian manufacturers who want to introduce innovative materials. It also proposes significant changes to ensure that the same set of construction rules apply to everyone in Ontario.
To that effect, a new provision is proposed which would prohibit municipalities from passing by-laws respecting the construction or demolition of buildings. The Province’s stated purpose of this proposed amendment is to clarify that municipalities do not have the authority to require their own unique standards beyond those of the Ontario Building Code. This proposed amendment has caused controversy among some stakeholders, because, if passed, it would prohibit municipalities from imposing green standard requirements on the construction of buildings, such as the Toronto Green Standards.
Bill 17 also proposes amendments to eliminate the need for a secondary provincial approval for innovative material, systems or building design, if the Canadian Construction Materials Centre has expressed its intention to examine it. The Province has indicated that this will save manufacturers up to $800 in application fees and 90 days in the approval process.
Finally, while not through Bill 17, the Province has expressed its intent to create regulation to amend the Building Code to eliminate application fees for Canadian manufacturers, which could save manufacturers approximately $12,000, and to explore other ways to prioritize Canadian manufacturers.
Complete Application Requirements
Various sections of the Planning Act and the CoT Act are proposed to be amended to restrict a municipality’s ability to amend its official plan to add additional requirements for complete applications beyond those which are currently identified, unless the Minister approves the official plan amendment in writing. Notably, the Bill provides for these sections to be repealed on a day to be proclaimed, thereby leaving the Province with the option to remove this requirement in the future should it choose to create a more detailed regulation outlining the specific complete application requirements, therefore making this section moot.
These proposed changes would apply to complete application requirements for official plan amendments, zoning by-law amendments, site plan control, plans of subdivision and consents. New subsections are also proposed which would deem the provision of information or material as having satisfied the complete application requirements if it was “prepared by a person authorized to practice a prescribed profession”, where the prescribed professions will be set out in future regulation. For example, if the Province prescribes engineers as a “prescribed profession,” if a Functional Servicing Study was prepared by a certified engineer, the municipality may no longer be able to say that the application is not complete on the basis that the Functional Servicing Study is inadequate or missing information.
Finally, the Minister would be granted regulation-making authority to specify information or material that may or may not be required for a complete application, and to override the complete application requirements set out in official plans. According to ERO posting 025-0462, the Province is consulting on proposed regulations to specify what type of information and material should and should not be required as part of a complete application. Currently, the Province is contemplating prohibiting municipalities from requesting materials in relation to sun/shadow, wind, urban design, and lighting as part of a complete application.
As-of-Right Variations from Setback Requirements
Bill 17 proposes to amend section 34 of the Planning Act to deem the “minimum setback distance” to be a percentage of the setback distance to be prescribed in the regulations. This would not apply to lands within the Greenbelt Area, rural or non-residential , or lands that are prescribed for the purposes of subsection 41(1.2) of the Planning Act, which include hazardous lands (i.e. wetlands and rivers/streams), lands near shorelines, and railways.
Where it applies, this amendment would eliminate the need to obtain a minor variance if a proposal is within a prescribed percentage of variation from a zoning by-law’s minimum setback requirements. The Province is currently proposing that this prescribed percentage be 10% and has suggested that its purpose is to eliminate setback barriers hindering the construction of additional residential units, such as basement suites. It is not yet clear whether the Province will consider expanding this proposed amendment in the future to include other zoning standards, such as height or density.
Amendments to Ministerial Zoning Orders
Bill 17 proposes to expressly authorize the Minister to impose conditions on Ministerial Zoning Orders (“MZO”) which, in the Minister’s opinion, are reasonable. If the Minister imposes conditions, the MZO would be suspended until the Minister is satisfied that the condition has been or will be fulfilled. The Minister may also require an owner of the land to enter into an agreement with the Minister or the municipality relating to the condition, an agreement which may be registered on title and enforceable.
The Province has indicated in its technical briefing that these conditions could involve requirements of municipalities and/or the MZO proponents.
Streamline Approvals for Schools
Bill 17 proposes to amend the Planning Act to prevent official plans and zoning by-laws from containing policy or provisions which would prohibit the use of a parcel of urban residential land for elementary or secondary schools, or for any ancillary uses, such as childcare centres. If passed, Bill 17 would deem any policy in an official plan or provision of a by-law which currently prohibits the use of these lands for schools to be of no effect.
It also proposes to exclude all portable classrooms on a school site from site plan control. Currently, only portable classrooms that existed on January 1, 2007 are excluded.
Inclusionary Zoning
As part of the “streamlining municipal development processes”, the Minister also amended Ontario Regulation 232/18: Inclusionary Zoning to prescribe that the percentage of gross floor area to be occupied by affordable housing in a development located within a Protected Major Transit Station Area cannot exceed 5% of the total residential units that are part of that development, or 5% of the total floor area of all residential units that are part of the development, and that the period of time for which affordable housing units would be maintained as affordable shall not exceed 25 years. Before this amendment, the “set-aside rate” and the “affordability period” were at the discretion of the municipalities to establish in their official plan policies. This change was first proposed to the regulation in 2022 when Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 was introduced; however, the regulation was not amended at that time.
Future Proposals to Accompany the Bill 17 Amendments
While not officially part of Bill 17, the technical briefing includes various other initiatives which the Province suggests it will pursue in the future to further streamline the municipal development processes. These initiatives include:
- Provincial Policy Tests – the Minister proposes to consult on opportunities for when provincial policy tests under the Planning Act (i.e. that decisions be consistent with the Provincial Planning Statement) could be inapplicable on a case-by-case basis.
- Streamlining Official Plans – the Minister proposes to consult with municipalities on future legislative or regulatory changes to establish simplified and standardized land use designations within official plans to permit more uses.
- Official Plan Population Updates – the Province indicates that it may require municipalities to update their official plans to align with the Ministry of Finance’s October 2024 population forecast or approved upper tier forecasts, whichever is higher. The purpose of these updates would be so that municipal official plans reflect current population projections and are informed by updated provincial growth planning guidance.
- Planning, Data, and Building Code IT Solutions – the Minister proposes to explore the standardization of municipal data tracking in the land use planning, building code and permit application spaces, and leverage technology to better automate planning and permitting processes and improve transparency.
- Providing More Flexible Design and Construction Options for Four-Storey Townhouse Units – the Province proposes to consult on amendments to the Ontario Building Code and the Ontario Fire Code which could improve the economic viability of single-unit four-storey townhouses, amendments which would be coupled with a focused package of compensating measures for fire and safety requirements. These changes may result in houses with more living area or bedrooms to be developed on smaller footprints.
- Streamlining the Development of Communal Water / Sewage Systems – consultations are proposed to occur to consider potential approaches to streamline municipal consents for communal water and sewage systems and modular “off-grid” water treatment facilities to support greater adoption where appropriate in underserviced rural communities. Currently, where there are no municipal water and wastewater systems available, private owners may construct communal systems with municipal consent; however, there is no uniform process to obtain said consent.
- Exploring a Public Utility Model for Water and Wastewater Infrastructure – more water and wastewater infrastructure capacity is required to build more houses. The Province has indicated that it is exploring the establishment of a new type of municipal service corporation for water and wastewater to provide opportunities to enable infrastructure expansion. While these water/wastewater systems would be governed and financed through this public utility corporation, they would remain publicly owned.
Conclusion
As always, the Davies Howe LLP team is here to keep you updated as Bill 17 moves through the legislative process. Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 of our Bill 17 blog-series relating to development charges and provincial transit projects!
