In response to the Province’s Bill 185, Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act, we made the below submissions last week to call on the province for better government-wide approaches to modernizing newspaper notice provisions, the Line Fences Act (LFA) and other municipal services. Our submissions outline opportunities to reduce administrative burden while supporting enhanced local service delivery.
Submission on Newspaper Notice Requirements
Since the discontinuation of many local newspapers, providing municipal notices to the public is an ongoing challenge. While Bill 185 includes a range of options for planning-related notices, there remains uncertainty as the future operation of online media outlets and news publications is unknown. There are also anticipated increases in planning-related notice activities and associated costs for municipalities.
Notice requirements must balance operational and administrative needs, capacity, resources and available technology with the importance of ensuring community members are kept up to date about various local matters and decisions.
We encourage the Province to:
- Review outdated language in legislation and specifically legislation that unnecessarily limits the mediums to provide notices
- Review requirements beyond technological references which may become out of date
- Invest in a one-source database of contact records for Ontarians to improve providing notice
- Engage the Ministry of the Attorney General in a government-wide effort to consistently address notice requirements across provincial legislation
Submission on the Line Fences Act (LFA)
Similarly, we are pleased to see the Province offer a range of mailing and electronic options for sending line fence-related notices and awards to try and reduce administrative burden on municipalities. Ultimately, municipalities, which tend to be small and rural communities, should be able to fulfill requirements in the way that best suits their individual, local needs.
Through our submission (which was sent to both the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs) we highlight opportunities to further reduce the burden and improve the value of the Act and effectiveness of service delivery, including:
- A mechanism such as frivolous and vexatious provisions to ensure that where the process is working effectively, it can continue to do so, and where requests are frivolous or vexatious, administrators have the authority and guidance to dismiss the request
- Setting out qualifications of fence viewers to help with appointment of fence viewers
- Updating manuals and training to be clear and concise, and support fence viewers in writing awards
- Clarifying and reviewing the circumstances in which fence viewings are required
Thank you to those members for bringing forward their expertise to help inform our Bill 185 submissions. As the Standing Committee wrapped up public hearings on the Bill yesterday, May 15, we will continue to monitor its progress.
For more information, please contact us.