New updated content: 2025-06-06 13:18:15

The City’s Official Plan, approved by Council in 2021 and by the Minister in 2022, now needs to be amended to conform with the new Provincial Policy Statement, which reflects the legislative changes since made by the Province through Bill 23 and others. The three main areas requiring attention are the boundaries of Major Transit Station Areas, Strategic Growth Areas and the expansion of settlement areas. The first two are basically covered adequately by the Official Plan, with minor revisions. The latter, urban boundary expansion, introduces the legislative change allowing one-off applications for urban expansion between comprehensive reviews. It also introduces the mandatory use of the population projections produced by the Ontario Ministry of Finance, rather than the City’s own projections. In our opinion, the latter are of superior quality. It was agreed that we should seek more clarification from staff on the timing and conditions surrounding the implementation of this new regime.