Ontario Municipal Board reform goal of weekend summit in Markham

More than 140 elected officials will bein Markham Saturday to discuss what needs to happen to reform the Ontario Municipal Board.

"The OMB is like this cloud, a dark cloud hanging over us. If you don't approve this, they'll go to the OMB and it will cost the taxpayers money and it's very frustrating," Waterloo councillor Angela Vieth said.

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Earlier this month, Vieth tabled a motion supporting a resolution from the Town of Aurora calling on the province to make changes to the tribunal. The resulting vote however resulted in a tie and the motion failed.

"All these other communities are hoping on board and going, 'Yes, it's time to start lobbying for at least a discussion.' Let's talk about making things amenable for communities, for councils, to bring forth their vision for their community," said Vieth, who said she is disappointed she won't be able to make the summit.

Guelph Coun. Phil Allt will be at the summit and said it is a good step in the discussion, but he's not convinced they will be able to reach a consensus.

"There isn't universal support for any one particular concept of reforming the OMB," he said. "We could come out of there with more questions than answers. There are many people that are quite happy with the OMB, and at the same time there's many individuals who would like to do away with it and then there's people in the middle who are seeking a compromise."

Local councils mixed on support for reform

The Ontario Municipal Board is a tribunal that hears applications and appeals under various land use planning laws and operates under the Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario.

In January, Town of Aurora Coun. Tom Mrakas put forth a motion in his own council chambers that asked the province to limit the scope of what the OMB can address, to matters of law and process.

Since then, a number of municipalities have supported a call by Mrakas to reform the OMB.

Locally, though, support has been mixed.

Guelph, North Dumfries and Cambridge have supported motions calling for OMB reform.

Kitchener and the Region of Waterloo have deferred making any decisions on it until they know more.

A tie vote at Waterloo council earlier this month meant themotion failed.

Province wants 'system that works'

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Ted McMeekin has been invited to the summit, but has said he cannot attend.

But in a letter to Mrakas, which Mrakas posted to his Facebook page, McMeekin said he is "very interested" in hearing what those attending Saturday's event have to say.

A review of the OMB is already set to begin in the next month, so McMeekin said any recommendations from the summit will be "timely and will be considered as part of the review."

"Our government shares your desire to have a planning and appeal system that works as effectively as possible," McMeekin wrote.

Summit a good step forward

Saturday's summit will feature a number of speakers including city planners and lawyers. It is expected there will be a specific set of recommendations made that will be presented to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), which advocates on behalf of municipalities to the province.

"The message is clear real, positive and effective change is needed as it speaks to the scope of powers of the OMB. With reform it is hoped that municipalities will have a greater say in how they grow and evolve," organizers of Saturday's summit said in a release.

Vieth said the summit is a good first step.

I just think it's a great start to something that's long overdue.- Waterloo Coun. Angela Vieth

"I think just to have a healthy discussion where everybody's upfront with each other and see where it goes," she said. "I just think it's a great start to something that's long overdue."

Allt said he expects Saturday's summit to be "organized chaos."

"I don't know how it's going to succeed and this will certainly be the first steps," he said.

"I think that we need to develop some sort of a rational recommendation that we can get behind that will allow us to proceed with OMB reforms that are to the satisfaction of cities, citizens and developers."