Challenging Ontario Municipal Board costs big money, politician says

The Ontario Municipal Board needs to be reformed according to an Aurora councillor, because the current systemis costing taxpayers an "extraordinary" amount of money.

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"We do spend an extraordinary amount of moneytaxpayer dollarsdeveloping the official plans and then they're approved by the province," said Tom Mrakas, a councillor with the Town of Aurora. "Then an applicant will come in and it doesn't conform to our official plan, and if we turn that down, we go to the OMB and we're spending even more money."

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Mrakaswas interviewed onThe Morning Editionafter he attended aweekend summit that saw more than 140 elected officials meet in Markham to discuss improvements to the OMB, a tribunal that hears applications and appeals under various land use planning laws and operates under the Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario.

Province to review OMB

Those attending the summit on Saturday broke into groups to discuss changes that could improve the OMB. A working group will now meet to go over suggested changes and then present those to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), which advocates on behalf of municipalities to the province.

• Cities calling for OMB reform need to plan properly, minister says

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Ted McMeekin has also said recommendations from the summit would be included in a review of the OMB, which is set to begin in the next month.

At the end of the day, the taxpayers, the residents, the citizens are the ones that are losing.- Town of Aurora Coun. Tom Mrakas

Mrakas first introduced a motion in Aurora in January calling on the province to limit the scope of the OMBto matters of law and process.

Since then, a number of municipalities have supported Mrakas's motion, although reaction has been mixed locally.

• Guelph, North Dumfries and Cambridge have supported motions calling for OMB reform.
• Kitchener and the Region of Waterloo have deferred their decisions.
• A tie vote at Waterloo council earlier this month meant the motion failed.

'The money aspect of it is extraordinary'

Mrakas said it is hard for municipalities to create and have the province approve theirofficial plans, only to have the OMB rule against those plans.

"Since[the province] approved our official plan ... we should be able to uphold that plan, deny an application that we don't feel betters our community," Mrakas said.

"The money aspect of it is extraordinary. At the end of the day, the taxpayers, the residents, the citizens are the ones that are losing," he added. "We need this change ... that will help us all moving forward and save the taxpayers a lot of money."