This paper was paired with a presentation given by Nancy Smith at the Ontario Bar Association’s Ontario Legal Conference: Municipal, Planning and Environmental Law program held on February 6 & 7, 2025.
Recent Ontario Heritage Act Amendments
Over the past five years, the Province has made significant changes to the Ontario Heritage Act[1] (“OHA”), particularly as it relates to rules around the listing and designation of properties of cultural heritage value or interest, and the ability to appeal municipal-level decisions under the OHA to the Ontario Land Tribunal (“OLT”).
One change that has been a major focus for municipalities came under Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022[2] and relates to time limits for inclusion of properties on heritage registers.[3] This change, which came into effect on January 1, 2023, provides that non-designated properties can be listed on a municipal register for a maximum of two years. For non-designated properties that were included on the register as of December 31, 2022 (termed “legacy listed properties”), municipalities were given until January 1, 2025 to review them and determine whether each property warranted designation under the OHA. Unless the designation process was initiated (i.e. a notice of intention to designate (“NOID”) issued) for a legacy listed property by January 1, 2025, it would be removed from the register and could not be relisted for a period of five years thereafter. The stated intent of these changes was to address the interaction between heritage protections and housing supply.[4]
2024 brought further change to the heritage landscape, with Bill 200, Homeowner Protection Act, 2024[5] and the coming into effect of the Provincial Planning Statement, 2024 (“PPS 2024”). Bill 200 extended the deadline for reviewing legacy listed properties, giving municipalities until January 1, 2027 to issue a NOID before these properties must be removed from the register. The 5-year bar on relisting legacy listed properties automatically removed was also amended to commence on January 1, 2027. The Bill also provided for regulation-making authority to allow for this date to be amended again in the future. Bill 200 also introduced detailed rules as to how voluntarily removing listed properties ahead of legislated timelines and removal requirements impacts a municipality’s ability to relist. In introducing the Bill 200 amendments for consultation, the Province explained that “the limitations and restrictions on listing established through Bill 23 were silent on how these rules apply and interact if council were to remove a property voluntarily and prior to the OHA requiring that the listed property be removed from the register, creating potential uncertainty on how voluntary removal impacts a municipality’s ability to relist a property.”[6]
On October 20, 2024, the PPS 2024 came into effect, replacing both the Provincial Policy Statement, 2020[7] (“PPS 2020”) and A Place to Grow: Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, 2019.[8] While heritage policy is not the focus of this paper, the PPS 2024 brought in a significant change that must be mentioned. Former policy 2.6.1 of the PPS 2020 required the conservation of “significant[9] built heritage resources and significant cultural heritage landscapes”. As applied by the OLT and its predecessors, a property did not have to be designated to be significant, where expert evidence supported such a finding. Policy 4.6.1 of the PPS 2024 now requires the conservation of “protected heritage property [emphasis added], which may contain built heritage resources or cultural heritage landscapes”. “Protected heritage property” as defined by the PPS 2024 only includes properties designated under Part IV or VI of the OHA and property within a heritage conservation district designated under Part V of the OHA.[10]