The government is reviewing three key elements of Ontario's municipal legislative framework: the Municipal Act, the City of Toronto Act, and the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.
There are three key areas of review, one of which involves looking at improvements to municipal legislation to ensure municipalities are able to respond to climate change and other municipal and provincial priority areas.
We have blogged previously on municipalities flexing their muscle on environmental goals. Sometimes they are successful, for example in passing legislation aimed at curbing cosmetic pesticide use; and sometimes not, for example when the City of Toronto sought to ban the sale of shark fin food products.
With more and more climate change related events, municipalities do need to ensure they can respond proactively with adaptive measures through environmental planning, both for the safety of their residents, and to ensure that they aren't left holding the bag in the event of failing to properly manage vulnerable urban infrastructure.
The province is accepting comments until August 7, 2015.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
