Springing Back: Province Announces Reform Stimulating The Housing Market, And Bringing Certainty And Standardization To Planning Processes

On March 30, 2026, Ontario’s provincial government (the “Province”) announced a series of watershed changes intended to revitalize the housing market and bring other notable change to the planning regime. While the changes (proposed and in place already) are wide reaching, most notable are the significant reductions to development charges, the introduction of HST rebates for eligible buyers of new homes, and the simplification of official plans.

Legislative changes have been proposed by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing through Bill 98, the Building Homes and Improving Transportation Infrastructure Act (“Bill 98”). According to the Province’s media guide (available here) (the “Media Guide”), Bill 98 has the noted goal of “building homes, fighting delays, reducing costs”, to be achieved through changes built on previous legislative reform in the planning sphere, and the related goal of revamping transit infrastructure (e.g. streamlined development approvals process for Metrolinx, fare unification, fare evasion penalty hikes, high-occupancy vehicle lane changes).

This bulletin examines the proposed changes in Bill 98 and other related provincial and federal announcements from March 30, 2026 that strive to “get homes built faster”.

1. Development Charges & HST Rebates

Significant cutbacks on development charges (“DCs”) have been announced by the Province: Ontario and Canada have agreed to a cost-matched structure to provide $8.8B over 10 years for infrastructure investments in Ontario, with funding prioritized for municipalities to facilitate continued reductions on DCs. Municipalities are expected to also separately support DC reductions. The Province and federal government will agree on a list of priority municipalities where DCs are seen as cost-prohibitive and, for those municipalities, Ontario has stated it will require a commitment of substantial residential DC reductions (30-50%) for a duration of three years.

Similarly, eligible buyers of new homes valued up to $1M will be eligible for a full HST rebate, subject to the passage of federal legislation, with similar and declining value rebates for houses of greater value.

Bill 98 proposes to exempt non-profit retirement homes from DCs, building on other similar exemptions.  And, the Province is separately consulting on the disclosure of municipal DCs and other previously hidden taxes and fees directly in new home agreements of purchase and sale.

2. Streamlining the Building Code

As noted in the Media Guide, since the introduction of Ontario’s first Building Code, it has more than quadrupled in size. Now, the Province wants to abbreviate the Code “so it better meets modern changes, while maintaining Ontario’s high health and safety standards”. The Province proposes to establish an expert third-party advisory body (comprised of engineering, construction, and code specialists) to help identify where rules can be modernized or streamlined.

3. Clarifying site plan and land division rules

The Province notes in its Media Guide that, in many large municipalities, site plan requirements “have expanded well beyond functional considerations, adding time and cost to projects”, and cites estimates of site-plan-related delays at $3.5B per year to the Ontario economy.  The Province proposes to prohibit municipalities from imposing mandatory enhanced development standards (e.g. landscaping, foliage requirements, soil composition, ornamental and design considerations) beyond what is required for health and safety. In short, the Province intends to remove all design elements other than those strictly required or related to health and safety considerations. This returns significant autonomy to developers and decreases standardization and consistency of development.

Further, the Province is consulting on major structural reforms to the overall site plan process, such as reducing repeated rounds of municipal feedback on proposed homebuilding applications.

Another notable change is a proposed walk back of municipal rights to impose various “green” requirements.

Similar regulation is proposed to prohibit mandatory enhanced development standards as a condition of land division approvals.

This is a significant change as many in the development industry have long contended that municipalities regularly exceed their jurisdiction in the site plan and land division approval processes.

4. Simplifying and standardizing official plans

The Province has proposed reform to the official plan process to create a mandatory, standardized set of land-use designations and a common structure setting out a table of contents and schedules (maps) that would be applied consistently across the province. According to the Province’s Media Guide for Bill 98, the change is proposed to “make plans clearer and easier for home builders, municipalities and the public to navigate”, and “reduce uncertainty for home builders and municipalities, shorten official plan approval times, and make planning for Ontario’s continued growth simpler and more effective.”

Recently, new official plans proposed by municipalities have stretched into the hundreds of pages, if not thousands, and have become increasingly prescriptive. While the drive to standardize and abbreviate official plans could improve certainty and make it easier for municipalities to consistently address planning matters through their official plans, this tool has evolved together with municipalities across Ontario and much fine-grained nuance and municipality-specific consideration may be lost in the move to standardization.

A schedule to Bill 98 sets out in further detail the proposed structure and details for inclusion in the new official plan format, for comment by the public as part of an Environmental Registry of Ontario (“ERO”) consultation process. Amongst the proposals is the standardization of uses to: neighbourhoods, mixed-use areas, mixed-use commercial areas, employment areas, major facilities, parks and open spaces, natural environment and water resource areas, resource areas, rural lands, prime agricultural areas, specialty crop areas, and shoreline areas (with specific permitted sub-uses). Links to the ERO postings for public comment can be found below.

Minister oversight will be notable, with the Minister having the power to provide a municipality or planning board with written directions specifying how to comply with the requirements for official plan contents and a related legislative requirement for municipalities to comply with those directions. However, the proposal also includes a carve-back related to Ministry oversight of protected major transit station areas (“PMTSA”): only official plan amendments changing the boundaries of a PMTSA or the planned population and jobs for the area would require the Minister’s approval.

The former official plan framework is proposed to continue to apply to a municipality or planning board until the day on which a new official plan or related revision under section 26 of the Planning Act is adopted after the applicable transition date (which, for most larger municipalities, is January 1, 2028, but otherwise is January 1, 2029).

The Minister is also recommending changes for secondary plans and site and area-specific policies, which could include identifying the types of areas where secondary plans could be used, separating secondary plans from the primary official plan to exist as a standalone document, and exempting secondary plans from Ministerial approval.

5. Standardized Application Requirements

The Minister is seeking consultation on which additional “prescribed professionals” should be added as certified professions for the purposes of a complete application. This concept of the “prescribed professional” was first introduced in Bill 17, Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025, and provides that any accompanying materials to an application prepared by such a prescribed person are deemed to meet the requirements of a complete application. Our bulletin on Bill 17 can be found here. Under O.Reg. 10/26, a professional engineer is currently the only “prescribed person” for the purposes of a site plan application.

The Minister has also commenced further consultation on a proposed regulation identifying the only information and material that planning authorities could require as part of a complete application, identifying two types of studies and when they could be required: core studies (i.e. environmental impact statement, environmental site assessment, functional servicing report, geotechnical report, hydrogeological report, planning justification report, and transportation impact study), and contingent studies (e.g. agricultural impact assessment, air quality/odour study, cultural heritage impact assessment, noise/vibration study, wind study).

6. Parkland Dedication

While municipal discretion has extended to permit the dedication of encumbered lands (often tending towards their exclusion), the government is consulting on regulation to prescribe criteria for developer-identified parkland and related implementation matters for the conveyance of developer-identified lands, to implement provisions of Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022, that are not yet in force. This would provide for land including encumbrances and Privately-Owned Publicly Accessible Space (POPS) arrangements to count towards municipal parkland dedication requirements, and for landowners to be able to appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal in cases where the municipality rejects the identified lands.

Regulation is proposed to ensure that selected parkland meets specific quality standards, and the Province has posted for consultation specifications for lands that would be ineligible, conditions by which lands may be eligible, and an implementation process. Such parkland is proposed to count with a minimum 70% credit.

7. Other Updates

Myriad other changes are proposed in conjunction with the above reform. What follows is a summary of some of the highlights:

• The Province is proposing to establish new legislative authority to set provincial rules for minimum lot sizes for urban residential land through regulation (currently proposed at 175 sm / 1884 sf minimum lot size standard).
• Changes are proposed to the Minister’s Zoning Orders (“MZO”) process, with a proposal to update consultation requirements for MZO amendments and revocations, purported to speed up the processing of certain adjustments including minor, administrative or time-sensitive needs.
• Following the broad dismantling of upper-tier municipality planning powers in previous legislative reform, the Province proposes to download planning responsibility to Innisfil, New Tecumseth, and Bradford West Gwillimbury, adding Simcoe County for these purposes to the definition of “upper-tier municipality without planning responsibilities”, and citing that these lower-tier municipalities are now in a position to adopt responsibility due to expanded fiscal and operational considerations. Smaller municipalities within Simcoe County are proposed to continue receiving provincial planning support, while larger municipalities will receive planning authority following request by local leadership.
• New framework is proposed to enable communal water and wastewater systems in rural and hard-to-service areas.
• The Minister is also seeking comments on a further revised draft Projection Methodology Guideline to assist planning authorities with identifying population and employment forecasts and assessing land needs, as part of a second consultation on the matter.

What next

The changes are broad sweeping and, while they represent the latest in a long series of reform measures by the Province, these changes in particular may have profound economic impact on home ownership and, by extension, on the residential development industry as a whole. Further significant impact is expected across the development industry more broadly, with certainty and standardization being introduced to the structure of many development tools.

As of the date of publication of this bulletin, Bill 98 has been ordered for second reading. McMillan will continue to monitor the bill and its related measures as they move forward at the Provincial Parliament. If your lands, projects, or interests may be impacted, please contact our Municipal, Land Use Planning & Development team, who would be pleased to discuss this important Bill and related measures and consultations with you.

Relevant further information can be found on the following websites:

1. Media briefing: Building Homes and Improving Transportation Infrastructure Act
2. Proposed Planning Act, City of Toronto Act, 2006, Building Code Act, 1992 and Municipal Act, 2001 Changes (Schedules X, X and X of Bill X, the Building Homes and Improving Transportation Infrastructure Act, 2026) | Environmental Registry of Ontario (consultation period March 30, 2026 – April 29, 2026)
3. Details of the Canada-Ontario Partnership to Build | Ontario Newsroom

Standardizing and Streamlining Official Plan, Site Plan, and Subdivision Processes

1. Consultation on simplifying and standardizing official plans | Environmental Registry of Ontario
2. Proposed Changes to Various Regulations Under the Planning Act and the City of Toronto Act, 2006 to Specify Additional “Prescribed Professions” for the Purposes of a Complete Application | Environmental Registry of Ontario (consultation period March 30, 2026 – May 14, 2026)
3. Consultation on upper-tier official plans, secondary plans, and site and area-specific policies | Environmental Registry of Ontario (consultation period March 30, 2026 – April 29, 2026)
4. Streamlining the information and material that planning authorities can require as part of a complete application | Environmental Registry of Ontario (consultation period March 30, 2026 – May 14, 2026)
5. Proposal to reform site plan control under the Planning Act and the City of Toronto Act, 2006 | Environmental Registry of OntarioProposed Regulation to Prohibit Mandatory Enhanced Development Standards as a Condition of Land Division Approvals | Environmental Registry of Ontario (consultation period March 30 – May 14, 2026)

Minimum Lot Sizes:

1. Consultation on Minimum Lot Sizes | Environmental Registry of Ontario
2. Proposed Regulatory Approach to Establish a Minimum Residential Lot Size in Urban Areas | Environmental Registry of Ontario (consultation period March 30, 2026 – May 14, 2026)

Other

1. Proposed Changes to Support Standardizing of Parkland Requirements Under the Planning Act | Environmental Registry of Ontario (consultation period March 30, 2026- May 14, 2026)
2. Draft Projection Methodology Guideline (PMG) to support the implementation of the Provincial Planning Statement, 2024 (PPS, 2024) | Environmental Registry of Ontario (consultation period March 30, 2026 – April 29, 2026)

The foregoing provides only an overview and does not constitute legal advice. Readers are cautioned against making any decisions based on this material alone. Rather, specific legal advice should be obtained.

© McMillan LLP 2025