May 16, 2025

Bill 17: Ontario Government Proposes Amendments to Accelerate Infrastructure and Housing Development

Jonathan Cheng, Caroline Jordan, Calvin Lantz

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Stikeman Elliott LLP

On May 12, 2025, Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing tabled Bill 17, the Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025, for first reading. Bill 17 is intended to remove barriers to building, accelerate the delivery of vital infrastructure, and protect Ontario jobs during a period of economic uncertainty.

Bill 17 proposes substantial amendments to the following statutes:

Building Code Act, 1992;
Building Transit Faster Act, 2020;
City of Toronto Act, 2006;
Development Charges Act, 1997;
Metrolinx Act, 2006;
Ministry of Infrastructure Act, 2011;
Planning Act; and
Transit-Oriented Communities Act, 2020.

These changes signal a shift toward standardization, streamlining, and increased provincial oversight. Developers, municipalities, and stakeholders should closely monitor Bill 17 as it advances through the legislative process. Key highlights of the proposed changes are outlined below.

Planning Act

Bill 17 proposes to amend the Planning Act and the City of Toronto Act, 2006 to establish a more consistent and standardized planning process:

Complete Application Requirements:
- In the context of planning applications, municipalities will only be able to require studies and reports that are already identified in their official plans. Written approval from the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing (the “Minister”) will be required before a municipality can adopt an official plan amendment making changes to the list of information and material that needs to be filed for a complete application.
- Municipalities will be required to accept studies prepared by certain certified professionals. The list of certified professionals is to be prescribed by a future regulation, which the Province is presently consulting on (ERO No. 025-0462).
- The type of information and material that municipalities are able to require for a complete application is proposed to be restricted by regulation. The Province is currently consulting on proposed regulations that would prohibit municipalities from requiring, as part of a complete application, studies related to sun/shadow, wind, urban design, and lighting (ERO No. 025-0462).
“As-of-Right” Variations to Minimum Setbacks: Proposed buildings in certain areas will be permitted to deviate from minimum setback requirements (up to a percentage to be prescribed in regulation, e.g., within 10% of setback requirements) “as-of-right,” without the need to obtain a minor variance. The Province is presently consulting on the regulations to govern these as-of-right variations from setback requirements (ERO No. 025-0463).
Minister’s Zoning Orders (“MZOs”): The Minister will have the authority to impose conditions upon MZOs (including the requirement for an owner to enter into an agreement that is registrable on the land and binding upon subsequent owners).
Schools on Residential Lands: Elementary or secondary schools of a school board (or any ancillary uses) will be permitted “as-of-right” on urban land zoned for residential uses – any official plan policies or zoning by-laws contrary to this permission will be of no effect.

Development Charges

Bill 17 proposes certain amendments to the Development Charges Act, 1997 including the following:

Expanded DC Deferral Eligibility: Currently, only rental housing and institutional development benefit from the statutorily imposed deferral of development charge (“DC”) payments – the proposed amendments will extend the benefit of DC deferrals to non-rental residential development. Such DCs will be payable upon issuance of an occupancy permit (or the first date of occupancy, whichever is earlier), rather than at the time of building permit issuance.
Interest on Deferred Payments: Municipalities can no longer charge interest on deferred DC payments. For existing deferrals, interest will stop accruing as soon as the new rules take effect.
DC Rate “Freeze”: The proposed amendments clarify that while developers can benefit from locked-in DC rates (typically frozen at the time a site plan approval application is filed), they can also take advantage of a lower rate if one applies at the time of DC payment. This is expected to address concerns about fluctuating DC rates, providing certainty regarding the upper limit of anticipated DC costs.
DC Credits on Service Categories: The Minister is granted authority to merge related infrastructure categories for DC credits, allowing, for example, a road credit to be applied to transit DCs. This enhances flexibility for developers in applying credits across service types.
Exemptions: Long-term care homes are explicitly exempted from DCs.
No Background Study Needed for Reducing DCs: Municipalities will not need to complete a background study if the only amendment to the DC By-law is to decrease the amount of DCs or to remove any provisions related to indexing DCs.
Expanded Regulation-making Powers: the Minister will have powers to make regulations for a broader range of matters, including what can be included by municipalities as recoverable capital costs, what constitutes a local service to be addressed through subdivision or consent agreements rather than through DCs, and merging related service categories for DC credits, among other matters.

These changes are intended to make DCs more predictable, while reducing costs and disputes between developers and municipalities.

Building Code

Bill 17 proposes amendments to the Building Code Act, 1992, clarifying that municipalities do not have the authority to pass by-laws respecting the construction or demolition of buildings, whereas currently, certain municipalities have construction requirements that go beyond the Provincial standards established under the Ontario Building Code.

Accelerating Provincial Transit Projects

Bill 17 introduces a suite of changes across several transit-related statutes, aiming to accelerate the delivery of a broader range of transit projects and to enhance Provincial and municipal coordination.

The cumulative effect of these amendments centralize and strengthen Provincial oversight of major transit projects, with the aim of enabling the Province to move more quickly to deliver infrastructure.

Next Steps

Bill 17 has been ordered for Second Reading and may be subject to further revisions as it proceeds through the legislative process. Stakeholders should continue to monitor its progress and prepare for the changes and potential impacts upon Ontario’s planning, development, and infrastructure landscape.

On May 12, 2025, the Minister also amended the Planning Act to cap affordability requirements under Inclusionary Zoning, further standardizing the regulatory framework. See our coverage of this topic here.