{"id":23716,"date":"2019-05-09T16:27:09","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T20:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23716"},"modified":"2019-05-16T17:27:30","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T21:27:30","slug":"ontario-bill-backtracks-on-omb-reform-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/ontario-bill-backtracks-on-omb-reform-mayor\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario Bill backtracks on OMB reform: Mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new bill introduced into the Ontario Legislature in the name of creating more housing will take away the ability of communities like Aurora to have a say in planning decisions, according to Mayor Tom Mrakas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Mrakas was joined Monday in Toronto by several\ncolleagues from across the GTA to speak out against the Provincial Government\u2019s\n\u201cHousing Supply Action Plan\u201d which is aimed at \u201ccutting red tape, building more\nhousing and increasing the number of affordable homes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan was announced Thursday by Steve Clark, Minister\nof Municipal Affairs and Housing, who said people struggling to find affordable\nhousing \u201cthat fits their family budget will see real relief and real choices\u201d thanks\nto the changes outlined in the changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c”We’ve heard loud\nand clear from families across Ontario that finding housing that is affordable\ntakes too long and costs too much,\u201d said Clark. \u201cAfter years of neglect by the\nformer government, there is now a housing crisis in Ontario and the dream of\nownership is out of reach for too many. Our plan will make it easier to build\nthe right type of homes in the right places, giving Ontarians and their\nfamilies more flexibility when looking for a home they can afford.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday\u2019s announcement said that the\nPlan would \u201cstreamline the overly complex development approvals process to\nremove unnecessary duplication and barriers, making costs and timelines more\npredictable,\u201d focusing on five key themes of speed, cost, mix, rent and\ninnovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Mrakas, however, said the\nchanges give Local Planning Appeal Tribunals, set up under the previous\nProvincial government, much of the same powers previously enjoyed by former\nOntario Municipal Board (OMB), and put communities\u2019 abilities to make planning\ndecisions that suit local needs in jeopardy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was shocked, and I couldn\u2019t\nbelieve that we\u2019re going backwards instead of forwards,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas, who\nchaired the OMB Reform Group, on his initial thoughts following the announcement.\n\u201cNormally, when you make changes to policy or legislation, we need to have a\ncertain amount of time to see how it unfolds, how it works, how it is going to\nbe working, and when you re-evaluate it, you don\u2019t just kind of throw it out\nand go backwards and back to the old system. You look to see how you can make\nsome minor changes to keep it moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe changes to the OMB in the\nHouse was a unanimous decision, so every party voted in favour of making\nchanges to the OMB. They all understood there was a need to make changes to\nthat piece of legislation, so now to go back to something that people\nunanimously supported moving forward with really doesn\u2019t make any sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going back to the old system will see local Councils\nelected by the people to make decisions on behalf of constituents \u201con how we\ngrow taken out of our hand and an unelected, unaccountable body, in turn, is\ngoing to be deciding how the Town of Aurora will grow, how it will intensify,\nhow much density will occur, regardless of how we see our Town evolving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the local level, Mayor Mrakas said he was particularly\nconcerned about the impacts such a move would have on efforts to put in place\nchanges to protect Aurora\u2019s so-called Stable Neighbourhoods against\nincompatible development, as well as efforts to preserve local heritage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am glad we\u2019re moving ahead with changes to the zoning\nin regards to stable neighbourhoods and we\u2019re at the point where it is going to\nbe in front of General Committee (in early June), so we can get it in front of\nCouncil and ratify those changes,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t implement the changes\nwe\u2019re looking at doing, and this became law, then through the appeal process,\nthat appeal of our changes to the zoning would end up going to the new, but the\nold OMB system which means that chances are they would be unfavourable to the\nTown\u2019s new changes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally under the proposed changes, matters related\nto heritage designations, or any appeals under that banner, could go before the\nLocal Planning Appeals Tribunal (LPAT) instead of the current system where\nmatters appear before the Conservation Review Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLPAT\u2019s decisions are binding, whereas the Conservation\nReview Board\u2019s decisions are not binding, said Mayor Mrakas. \u201cNormally, in the\ninfinite wisdom of the Province, they have the authority when it came to\nheritage matters to the local municipality. We had the ultimate authority. With\nthis change, now you\u2019ve almost reversed it and now you\u2019re giving the authority,\nonce again, to that unelected, unaccountable body and they will be deciding\nwhat is historic in our Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo me, that is absolutely wrong and could have\nlong-lasting ramifications to the heritage in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new bill introduced into the Ontario Legislature in the name of creating more housing will take away the ability of communities like Aurora to have a say in planning decisions, according to Mayor Tom Mrakas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6aw","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-14 15:04:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}