Bill 150 explained in plain English
Planning Statute Law Amendment Act, 2023
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
Bill 150 enacts a new law to approve certain municipal official plans and amendments, and amends the Planning Act to limit legal remedies related to planning decisions made under section 47.
Bill 150 accomplishes two main things: **Part 1: Official Plan Adjustments Act, 2023** The bill creates a new law that approves 13 official plans and amendments from municipalities across Ontario (including Barrie, Belleville, Guelph, Halton, Hamilton, Niagara, Ottawa, Peel, Peterborough, Waterloo, Wellington, and York). These plans were previously rejected or sent back for changes by the provincial government under the Planning Act. The bill treats them as if they have now been approved by the province, effective from the original dates the provincial decisions were made. Some of these plans are approved with modifications (changes) that are specified in the law or in the original provincial decisions. Some are approved as originally adopted by the municipalities. The bill also states that no legal case can be started based on the fact that this law exists, or based on the approval of these plans. It prevents people from suing for costs, compensation, or damages related to these approvals, and stops other types of court proceedings except for judicial review applications. **Part 2: Changes to the Planning Act** The bill amends section 47 of the Planning Act (which gives the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing powers to make certain planning orders) to add similar legal protections. It states that no legal case can arise from decisions made under section 47, and prevents people from suing for compensation or damages related to those decisions. Again, judicial review applications are still allowed, but other court proceedings are barred. These protections apply whether a legal dispute started before, on, or after the law was passed. Both parts came into force immediately upon Royal Assent on December 6, 2023.
- This draft was normalized from a partial local-model response and must be reviewed before publication.
A new law is created that approves 13 municipal official plans and amendments that were previously subject to provincial decisions under section 17(34) of the Planning Act. The law treats those provincial decisions as never made and formally approves the plans.
Source: Schedule 1
Certain decisions made under this subsection relating to 13 municipal official plans and amendments are deemed to have never been made. The plans themselves are now approved under the new Official Plan Adjustments Act instead.
Source: Schedule 1, section 1
New subsections (20) to (28) are added establishing limitations on legal remedies. No cause of action can arise from decisions made under section 47, no compensation or damages can be claimed, and most court proceedings based on such decisions are barred (except judicial review). These protections apply retroactively.
Source: Schedule 2, section 1
The law states that nothing in the Official Plan Adjustments Act will invalidate building permits already issued, or provide grounds for revoking permits under section 8(10) of the Building Code Act.
Source: Schedule 1, section 3(3)
Actions taken under the Official Plan Adjustments Act or the amended Planning Act section 47 are declared not to constitute expropriation or injurious affection under the Expropriations Act.
Source: Schedule 1, section 4(7); Schedule 2, subsection (26)
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
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Vote Summary
This bill does not have a published recorded division in the current official sources, so representative-by-representative vote counts are not shown.
No published representative vote breakdown
The current official sources do not publish a recorded division breakdown for this bill, so there is no representative-by-representative table to show.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced