The Ontario government recently voted in Committee
to remove Schedule 10 from Bill 66, Restoring Ontario's
Competitiveness Act. The removal of Schedule 10 was in response to
comments received concerning impacts to farmland, drinking water
sources and other natural areas that risked being pressured for
development.
Schedule 10 proposed to amend the Planning Act ("Act")
to add a new section 34.1 allowing local municipalities to pass
open for business planning by-laws. These by-laws allow a
municipality to exercise its powers set out in section 34 of the
Act to provide for specific conditions. A municipality under
this section would be permitted to pass an open for business
planning by-law only if it received approval to do so in writing
from the Minister and if the prescribed conditions were satisfied.
Note that certain provisions of the Act and other statutory
instruments that would ordinarily apply to a by-law passed under
section 34 would not apply to an open for
