Toronto ‘overstepping’ planning authority: Ontario builders legal action against City of Toronto over green standard escalation

Ontario Construction News staff writer

The Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON) has filed a legal challenge in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against the City of Toronto, over the city’s recent escalation of the Toronto Green Standard (TGS) performance measures, arguing the municipal government is overstepping its powers by enacting rules on “the manner of construction and construction standards.”

RESCON is asking the provincial court to prohibit Toronto from imposing the standards and any others in the future that would dictate construction requirements beyond the Ontario building code.

What is Toronto’s ‘Green Standard’ for building?

Provincially, more than 30 municipalities have enacted similar standards in recent years, as the provincial government attempted to speed up housing construction.

RESCON is requesting that the court issue a mandatory order to enforce the Building Code Act, preventing the city from imposing additional building regulations on planning applications, arguing that these measures exceed the city’s legal authority.

“The city is overstepping its planning authority by enforcing technical building standards already addressed in the OBC, which is based on rigorous research, building science, and cost-benefit analysis,” said RESCON president Richard Lyall. “Municipalities do not have the authority to create their own building regulations.

“The Ontario Building Code, established in 1975, was designed to standardize construction practices across the province and eliminate such local discrepancies.”

While RESCON acknowledges the city’s power under the Planning Act to regulate land-use planning and apply site-specific controls within Toronto, the organization contends that construction standards and methods fall under the purview of the Ontario Building Code (OBC), not municipal site plan controls.

In it’s challenge, RESCON argues municipalities are not equipped to develop technical building standards, which are best left to federal and provincial authorities. Local governments’ efforts to implement their own building regulations duplicate those of higher levels of government, causing delays in approval processes and driving up costs for consumers.