Brick-by-brick the Ontario Government has been chipping away at the Province’s Planning Act process in the interest of expediting delays.
First off, it was by initiating a system of Ministerial Zoning Orders that would rubber stamp time-sensitive developments with the stroke of a pen.
It was a process used in McNab-Braeside to fast-track industrial development on what had been zoned Agricultural land as then Minister Steve Clark assisted the Township in its plan to relocate six industries from Germany and create several hundred proposed jobs.
The same arguments of loss of local control were heard at the McNab-Braeside Council table Tuesday when elected representatives were made aware of imminent changes that would shift Site Plan approvals to the Administrative function.
Mayor Tom Peckett agrees with the change.
Peckett says the two-tier bureaucracy often gets in the way of getting things done.
The Site Plan solution, as outlined in Bill 109, will come into effect July 1st.
There will be further process-accelerating steps planned by the Province for January 2023.
