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On October 23, 2025, the Ontario government introduced the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025 (Bill 60)1, a legislative proposal it has stated is aimed at accelerating the construction of homes and infrastructure across the province. 2 Under the Planning Act3 and related regulations, municipalities are required to maintain an official plan ("OP").
As we understand it, the provincial government has heard concerns that OPs have become overly complex, restrictive, and time-consuming to produce. In response to these concerns, the government is considering measures to simplify and standardize the structure and content of OPs across Ontario. As such, it has posted a notice on the Environmental Registry of Ontario (the "ERO"), inviting public feedback on its proposed changes to help "simplify, standardize and make more permissive municipal official plans so they are shorter, easier to understand, and more consistent across Ontario".4
Key proposals include:
- Establishing a mandatory chapter order and standardized schedules for official plans;
- Limiting the scope of development standards within official plans and requiring existing development standards in official plans to be incorporated into zoning by-laws;
- Requiring municipalities to consolidate planning documents into a single, comprehensive official plan, including potentially prohibiting the use of secondary or site-specific plans;
- Introducing a page or word limit to reduce the length of official plans;
- Standardizing the number and type of land use designations across municipalities and making designations more permissive;
- Implementing transition strategies to help municipalities align with the new framework, including phased implementation timelines and support for data and mapping updates; and
- Allowing the submission of official plan information and documents to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing through an online portal.5
Public consultation is now open, and stakeholders, including municipalities, developers, and community members, are encouraged to submit comments before the November 22, 2025 cut-off.
Footnotes
1. Bill 60, Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025.
2. Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, "Technical Briefing Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025" (23 October 2025), online (pdf): https://news.ontario.ca/assets/files/20251023/56f8ae306aaed7abc089126aecdeaffa.pdf.
3. Planning Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.13.
4. Environmental Registry of Ontario, "Consultation on simplifying and standardizing official plans" (23 October 2025), online: https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/025-1099.
5. Ibid.
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