On Monday, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra announced at Queens Park that after reviewing previous decisions made by the Ministry, it would be introducing legislation to roll back Provincial changes made to Official Plans and Official Plan Amendments in 13 municipalities, including those made to the Region of Niagara’s OP (list of changes here).
For the most part, this applies to urban boundary changes. Calandra said this was part of “building a better relationship” with municipalities. That also includes the Minister “reviewing costs” of Grimsby and Pickering, reversing course on his statements last week that would have municipalities on the hook for incurred expenses.
The costs incurred by Pickering hover around $360K, while Grimsby’s costs have been pegged between $82K to $88K.
While the Province intends on making municipalities whole, officially no “person” will have any recourse under Bill 136 aka “The Greenbelt Statute Law Amendment Act, 2023” should it receive Royal Assent in its current version.
With provisions such as “Proceedings barred”, “No costs award”, “No remedy” and “Retrospective effect”, the Province has attempted to prevent litigation through legislation between anyone, be it the Province, developers, municipalities and other classes related to this whole affair.
