Introduction

Red tape is a significant barrier to productivity, economic development, as well as domestic and international growth. That’s why we’ve taken over 550 actions since 2018 to save people, businesses, not-for-profit organizations, municipalities, universities and colleges, school boards and hospitals time and money.

The Fall 2024 Red Tape Reduction Package introduces additional forward-thinking initiatives that will build on the actions Ontario has taken to cut red tape to date, saving people and businesses over $1 billion and 1.5 million hours every year.

Ontario ranks in the top three provinces nationwide for reducing red tape, and our A- score on the Canadian Federation of Independent Business' report proves our efforts are working. But like any jurisdiction that wants to be a leader in regulatory modernization, more work needs to be done.

As Ontario continues to grow, we are continuing to take action to make government more efficient for everyone helping to build Ontario.

Better services for you

Outdated regulations, excessive paperwork, and a lack of transparency lead to frustration and delays. Here’s how we’re saving you time by simplifying and streamlining services and interactions with government.

Burden reduction for individuals

We’re proposing requirements for all ministries across government to measure and report on activities aimed at reducing administrative burden on individuals. This proposed change will enable the government to share more information over time about its efforts on reducing burden for individuals.

Introducing efficiencies to the Landlord Tenant Board and other tribunal process

The current backlog and delays are causing significant stress and uncertainty for tenants and landlords alike. The proposed new changes include several improvements, such as:

  • allowing the Landlord Tenant Board to overlook small mistakes in applications (such as a wrong unit number or a misspelled name), if they don’t cause confusion or harm. This will help avoid unnecessary refiling of applications
  • allowing the executive chair of the board to reassign the case to a new adjudicator to ensure timely decisions, if the original adjudicator is unable or fails to complete a hearing

By implementing these changes, we can deliver quicker resolutions, reduce waiting times, and ensure a fairer process for everyone involved. This is about making our system more responsive and effective at a time when efficiency is more important than ever.

Streamlining and improving the Health Assessment Form

The Health Assessment Form is a comprehensive assessment to determine an applicant’s care needs in long-term care. We’re streamlining and improving the form by removing irrelevant questions and clarifying others, improving the form’s layout, digitizing and updating requirements. This proposal is estimated to achieve time savings of 54,000 hours annually for physicians and staff. It is also intended to improve the quality of information received by LTC homes and Ontario Health at Home to determine eligibility of applicants for LTC, therefore increasing efficiencies throughout the placement process.

Additional residential units

We are aiming to boost the construction of additional residential units by providing homeowners more flexibility and design options for building garden suites, laneway homes, and basement apartments. The proposed regulation will reduce or eliminate the need for landowners to obtain rezoning or minor variances before construction.

This means direct cost and time savings on each project, ultimately supporting the creation of more rental units across the province. By making these changes, we can expand more housing options, reduce financial strain on homeowners, and support diverse living arrangements.

Improving Ontario’s Assistive Devices Program with white canes

Based on community feedback, we are making it easier and more convenient for people with vision loss to access more support closer to home. We will provide full coverage for two white canes and two cane tips per year and is also planning to modernize its processes. This includes providing direct shipping across the province and reducing the need to reapply to every 5 years.

Establishing the Ontario Payroll Burden Reduction Consultative Forum

We’re creating a new consultative forum to provide expert advice and recommendations on reducing the administrative payroll burden for Ontario businesses. The Ontario Payroll Burden Reduction Consultative Forum will serve as a regular platform for the government to gather feedback on new policy decisions, ensuring that unintended payroll consequences are addressed early as we continue to modernize the regulatory environment for Ontario employers.

Keeping costs down

High costs and slow approvals lead to missed opportunities for economic growth, job creation and development. Here’s how we’re reducing red tape to increase economic competitiveness and save individuals and businesses money.

Freezing fare increases for driver knowledge testing

We have amended the Highway Traffic Act to freeze fees for knowledge and road tests at their current levels. This change will make it more affordable for Ontario drivers and trainees to complete knowledge and road testing.

Allowing extended semitrailers

We’ve introduced special vehicle configuration permits that allow approved commercial vehicle operators (also known as carriers) to use extended semitrailers for transporting lighter, bulkier cargo. This initiative helps carriers save fuel and reduce the number of trips required to complete the same freight tasks.

Providing electronic logging device exemptions for RVs

We’ve amended the Highway Traffic Act to exempt commercial motor vehicle drivers who sell, lease or transport recreational vehicle (RV) trailers from provincial electronic logging device (ELD) requirements. Under this amendment, these drivers are now allowed to maintain a Record of Duty Status in an alternate format to an ELD when driving in Ontario. This change to the Highway Traffic Act also aligned Ontario with Canadian and U.S. exemptions for the RV towaway sector will make it easier for operators to deliver RVs from the U.S. into Ontario.

Building Ontario’s economy

We continue to find ourselves in uncertain economic times. And while Ontario has remained resilient, we cannot take anything for granted. Here’s how we’re continuing our efforts to streamline Ontario’s regulatory climate, to make it easier than ever to invest and do business in our province.

Addressing illegal selling of new homes

We are proposing to amend the Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act to clarify Tarion’s regulation-making authority so it can help address illegal new home builders who are taking advantage of Tarion’s guarantee fund. The proposed amendment would enable Tarion to make future changes to regulation to help identify illegal builders, better manage Tarion’s deposit protection liability, and ensure the sustainability of its guarantee fund. This will ensure fair treatment of legal builders who pay into the fund and crack down on illegal builders who are cutting costs by not paying into the fund. Early identification of illegal builders will also help to protect those buying a new home so they can make their purchase with more confidence.

Transforming Ontario’s heritage framework

Ontario’s existing heritage conservation framework, including the foundational Ontario Heritage Act, has not undergone comprehensive review or renewal in over a decade. We’re committed to transforming the heritage framework to effectively deliver on its core regulatory programs and services. By consulting with Indigenous communities and sector stakeholders, we will ensure the conservation of cultural heritage resources while proactively supporting the government’s priorities of building housing and other critical infrastructure.

Advancing digital twins

Ontario is piloting digital modelling tools, known as digital twins, to help deliver key infrastructure projects such as hospitals, highways and transit on time and on budget. Digital twins can include virtual models of existing and planned electrical, water, gas and wastewater services. They help to predict – and avoid – costly and dangerous utility conflicts, thereby improving worker safety, saving money and ensuring projects are completed on time.

Supporting brownfields redevelopment

We are proposing to amend the Environmental Protection Act and O. Reg. 153/04: Records of Site Condition to help reduce barriers to redevelop and revitalize historically contaminated lands (also known as brownfields), putting prime land back to good use and supporting our work to build more homes. The proposed changes would save municipalities and industry time and money by reducing registration requirements for the redevelopment of certain lower risk sites, while continuing to ensure that human health and the environment are protected.

Streamlining Ontario’s energy and water efficiency regulation

Amending the Efficiency Regulation: Ontario is amending Ontario Regulation 509/18: Energy and Water Efficiency – Appliances and Products made under the Electricity Act, 1998 (the Efficiency Regulation). These amendments would fully harmonize Ontario requirements and efficiency metrics for 42 products through rolling incorporation by reference to the federal, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) standards. This means that Ontario’s standards would be automatically updated whenever NRCan revises its standards for these products. The proposed amendments would also remove now obsolete efficiency requirements for three existing products and streamline the regulation.

Removing barriers for reuse of excess soil

We are proposing amendments to the Excess Soil Regulation (O. Reg. 406/19) under the Environmental Protection Act to clarify existing regulatory requirements and make it easier and more affordable for municipalities and business in the construction industry to reuse more excess soil excavated from construction sites and infrastructure projects. These changes will continue to ensure strong environmental protections.

Streamlining permissions while maintaining environmental standards and protections

We are proposing changes that would streamline environmental permissions for certain stormwater management works, construction-related water takings, residential geothermal systems, on-site sewage systems, and aggregate washing systems. This would allow municipalities and businesses to self-register these projects online on the ministry’s Environmental Activity and Sector Registry (EASR) instead of applying for a traditional environmental permission that can take up to a year to obtain.

Streamlining qualifications process for building officials from Manitoba to practice in Ontario

We’re proposing regulatory changes to make it easier for building officials to work across provincial boundaries. This change would allow building officials in Manitoba to practice in Ontario, helping address current shortages of municipal building officials in Kenora and other communities in Northern Ontario.