Five years ago this month, Toronto city council spoke out clearly on what should be done with the Ontario Municipal Board.
By a resounding vote of 34 to 5, councillors sent a message to Queen’s Park: free us from this unelected, unaccountable body that all too often brushes aside attempts to protect neighbourhoods. Make sure Toronto remains livable as it grows faster than it ever has before.
City council had it right. The best thing the province could do with the OMB would be to liberate Toronto from its domination. The city should be able to chart its own path forward without being held in thrall to this secretive board. It should be given the power to set up its own development appeals body that would show a lot more respect for decisions made by councillors, city planners and ordinary residents.
Unfortunately, according to an in-depth series of articles over the weekend by the Star’s Jennifer Pagliaro, the Wynne government doesn’t intend to follow this sensible and democratic approach.
As it plans a major and long-overdue overhaul of the OMB, the province has reportedly ruled out freeing Toronto from its oversight and letting the city set up its own appeals board to rule on set up its own appeals board to rule on significant new development.
That’s the bad news. And it’s disappointing that after years of discussing reform to the OMB, it appears Queen’s Park still doesn’t think Toronto can be trusted to work out these issues on its own. It’s another example of treating the metropolis of Canada as just one more local burg that has to go cap in hand to the province on issues vital to its future.
Still, there is good news. The province is sending out clear signals it believes the OMB must be seriously reformed. Municipal Affairs Minister Bill Mauro told the Star that the OMB review is a “very serious exercise” and “we’re looking to move in the direction of much more local deference for local decision-making.” Premier Wynne herself acknowledges that earlier changes failed to make the OMB show more respect for local decisions, “and so we have to go farther.”
That’s excellent, as far as it goes. Torontonians – from city councillors down to neighbourhood residents worried about condo towers looming over their backyards – have long complained that the OMB routinely approves mega-developments in areas of the city that can’t handle them.
All too often, as the Star series demonstrated, it brushes aside months of consultations with local residents and decisions by city planners and councillors and rules in favour of developers seeking taller towers and greater density.
It’s encouraging that Queen’s Park seems finally to have woken up to this reality, but there’s a closing-the-barn-door quality to its promise to rein in the appeal board. For the past decade Toronto has seen unprecedented growth, and neighbourhoods like Yonge and Eglinton have been fundamentally reshaped. That development cannot be undone.
Still, the city’s growth spurt continues unabated and the quicker it can be shaped at the local level, the better. To cite just one example, city council is about to make crucial decisions on development on the Honest Ed’s site at Bathurst and Bloor, where a series of towers approaching 30 storeys is being proposed. That will completely transform another part of the city.
At the very least, the rules governing the OMB should be changed so that it better respects development decisions taken at the neighbourhood and council level. Instead of simply being required to “have regard” for local decisions (as the law stands now), it should overturn those decisions only if city and provincial policies have not been followed.
In other words, the OMB should be an actual appeals body, as city staff have recommended. It should not allow developers to overturn local decisions simply by arguing the issues all over again before the board’s appointed members.
The development industry will fiercely resist such changes, arguing that they will hinder growth. But the pressures for growth and ever-greater density are so great that there’s little chance of that. The province should stick to its guns and make sure local decision-making gets more respect. The future character of our city depends on it.
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