Reforming the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment Process - by Councillor Paul Ainslie, seconded by Councillor Shelley Carroll

Impact studies, along with public meetings, often take two years or more to complete before construction can commence. When a member of the public objects to a project through a Part II Order, delays are guaranteed to follow. The Minister of the Environment and Climate Change is obligated to personally decide whether a broader environmental review and a hearing are warranted. In 2005, an Environmental Assessment Advisory Panel recommended the Government of Ontario pursue reform of the system. Since then there have been numerous requests for reform, but little progress has been made. Successive studies by the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario have demonstrated the adverse impact that the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment process is having on public works. In its first study in 2011, the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario found that the lengthy time frames and higher costs to comply with the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment process were not providing additional environmental or other benefits. Although improvements were made to the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment process, in the period between the two studies, the time to complete an Environmental Assessment rose from 19 months to 26.7 months and costs went from an average of $113,300 to $386,500. A coalition of the Municipal Engineers Association and the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario have successfully applied to have a review of the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment process conducted under Part IV (Section 61) of the Environmental Bill of Rights Act, 1993 (EBR Act). The Federal and Provincial governments are investing billions of infrastructure dollars in Ontario, but if local projects do not have the necessary approvals, these funds could be delayed significantly. In 2009, many Ontario municipalities advanced "shovel ready" projects rather than "shovel worthy" projects in part because the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment process would have taken too long. Despite written commitments made by the Ministry of the Environment with the previous government to exempt low-risk projects from the Part II Order request as was the case prior to 2011, or to consider delegating authority for dealing with these requests to Minister of the Environment and Climate Change staff, no action has been taken. Given the scale of the infrastructure investments being made by all three levels of government, it is difficult to overstate the need for meaningful reform of the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment process in Ontario. Such action will allow Ontario to build the infrastructure that it needs to be competitive in the globalized economies of the twenty-first century. REQUIRES RE-OPENING This Motion requires a re-opening of Item MM11.11 (October 29 and 30, 2019).

process and that the recommendations of the Municipal Engineers Association and the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance be incorporated into the revised Municipal Class Environmental Assessment process.