Ontario's ministerial zoning order process needs overhaul, auditor general says

Queen's Park is seen in late November as snow falls on Toronto. (Craig Wadman/CTV News Toronto)

Ontario's ministerial zoning order process needs to be overhauled, even after the introduction of a new framework for the land use planning tool, the province's auditor general said Tuesday.

Minister's zoning orders -- also known as MZOs -- allow the housing minister to make changes to land zoning rules, override municipal decisions, and in theory, fast-track housing projects.

The auditor general says the province has used the tool 114 times from 2019 to 2023 under Premier Doug Ford's government, which is a 17-fold increase in usage from the previous 20 years.

"We found that none of the information packages that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing prepared for the minister during this time contained an assessment as to whether the MZO was necessary, including if it would expedite the project, as opposed to using the normal municipal planning process," auditor general Shelley Spence said at a news conference.

Her annual report highlighted several issues with some MZOs that have been granted.

In late 2021, for example, the Township of Cavan Monaghan passed a resolution to support an MZO for a massive project called Kawartha Downs that included a horse racing track, a casino and residential housing.

The township's mayor emailed then-housing minister Steve Clark's deputy chief of staff directly, who then passed the request on to the ministry.

The developer told the ministry, the township and the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority that an important wetland in that area would not be touched. The ministry began discussions with the Williams Treaties First Nations and told them the wetland would be protected.

A consultant working for the developer then requested that parts of the wetland be included in the project because "protecting them would have resulted in complaints for development," the auditor general wrote.

Neither the First Nations nor the conservation authority were told or consulted, the auditor said, and Clark approved the MZO two days later.

The auditor general issued 19 recommendations that include assessing and documenting the rationale for taking a project through the MZO process or sticking with the municipal planning process.

Housing Minister Paul Calandra introduced a new framework in April for granting the zoning orders, which addresses some of the auditor general's recommendations.

The ministry has accepted all of the recommendations.

"I think a vast majority of the recommendations we've already implemented with the new MZO framework," Calandra said.

"Absolutely we want to ensure that the ultimate goal is to get a shovel in the ground. Then we are going to ensure that any MZO that we approve has to be followed up by a shovel in the ground. If it's not, then I won't hesitate to revoke it."

Calandra said he has revoked three MZOs since introducing the new framework.