WHEREAS a coalition of the Municipal Engineers Association (MEA) and the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario have successfully applied to have a review of the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment process conducted under Part IV (Section 61) of the Environmental Bill of Rights Act, 1993 (EBR Act);
AND WHEREAS impact studies and public meetings required by the MCEA process often take two years or more to complete before construction can commence;
AND WHEREAS the MCEA requirements to evaluate alternatives are often not well aligned with prior or municipal land use planning decisions;
AND WHEREAS analysis by the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario (RCCAO) has demonstrated that the time to complete an EA rose from 19 months to 26.7 months and costs went from an average of $113,300 to $386,500;
AND WHEREAS the Auditor General of Ontario has tabled recommendations for modernizing the MCEA process;
AND WHEREAS in spite of written commitments made by the Ministry of the Environment between 2013-2015, no action has been taken;
AND WHEREAS local projects that do not have the necessary approvals could lose out on the next intake of Build Canada funding;
NOW THEREFORE be it resolved that Township of North Huron requests that the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change take immediate steps to expedite the response process for Part II Orders or Bump-Up requests, as part of the s.61 review to improve MCEA process times and reduce study costs;
AND FURTHER that the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change support changes to better integrate and harmonize the MCEA process with processes defined under the Planning Act;
AND FURTHER that the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change amend the scope of MCEA reports and studies to reduce duplication with existing public processes and decisions made under municipal Official Plans and provincial legislation.