Ontario Proposes To Consolidate Environment And Land Tribunals

Summary

The Government of Ontario recently introduced legislation that proposes to combine an existing cluster of five land and environmental tribunals into a single entity called the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT). The OLT will merge the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT), the Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT), the Conservation Review Board, the Mining and Lands Tribunal, and the Board of Negotiation.

Bill 245, the Accelerating Access to Justice Act, 2021 ("Bill 245") is an omnibus bill that includes the proposed enactment of a new Ontario Land Tribunal Act, 2021 (the "Act"), which would amalgamate these five tribunals. The government states that Bill 245 will improve access to justice for Ontario residents and modernize existing processes. While the new regime would not materially impact substantive land use planning and environmental matters, Bill 245 may have some impact on procedural matters by streamlining the process to initiate