Item - 2022.PH30.6

The Planning and Housing Committee recommends that:

1. City Council request that the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to exercise his legislative authority under Section 12(3) of the Places to Grow Act to set an alternative timeframe of July 2023 by which the City of Toronto's Official Plan must conform with the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

2. If the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing grants the extension in Recommendation 1 of the report (December 21, 2021) from the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to hold a statutory public meeting under Section 26 of the Planning Act in the first half of 2023 to consider the Municipal Comprehensive Review.

3. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to consider advancing Final Recommendation Reports on complete Official Plan Amendment applications that are being considered concurrently with and in the context of the Municipal Comprehensive Review no later than the July 5, 2022 meeting of the Planning and Housing Committee meeting.

4. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning conduct an environmental scan of jurisdictions that have integrated an equity-deserving lens, incorporating the needs of people with disabilities into their long-term land-use plans, instruments, and implementation strategies and report back to the Planning and Housing Committee in the second quarter of 2022. 

5. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning report back to the Toronto Accessibility Advisory Committee by the end of the second quarter of 2022 on draft policies prepared as part of the Municipal Comprehensive Review incorporating an equity-deserving lens with a focus on the needs of people living with disabilities.

The Growth Plan Conformity and Municipal Comprehensive Review (MCR) is provincially required and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing has established July 1, 2022 as the date by which municipalities within the Greater Golden Horseshoe Area must have completed their MCRs.

As reported by the Province's Auditor General in her December 2021 report, since 2017, the Province has put in place numerous changes to Growth Plan policies, which has created instability in the planning process and challenged municipalities’ abilities to implement provincial policies in their local plans. In 2017, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing amended the Growth Plan and gave municipalities five years, until July 2022, to update their official plans. However, the Ministry amended the Growth Plan again in 2019 and 2020.

Despite the challenging date to meet conformity with the Growth Plan, the complexity of Toronto's MCR, and operating in a completely virtual environment, staff have continued to advance components of the MCR, including a citywide engagement program, analysis of the 140 employment land conversion requests and identifying Major Transit Station Areas city-wide. This report provides City Council with an update and describes next steps on the Growth Plan Conformity exercise and MCR, named Our Plan Toronto. It also recommends that Council request the Minister extend the date by which the City's conformity exercise is to be completed by one year to July 2023.

At its meeting on November 15, 2021, the Toronto Accessibility Advisory Committee considered Item DI18.3 and made recommendations to the Planning and Housing Committee.