Bill 73, Smart Growth for Our Communities Act, 2015, has been an item of much discussion over the past year in the planning and development community. One of the main thrusts of the legislative change is an emphasis on civic engagement and an attempt to achieve more meaningful participation from the public. I wrote an article on the Bill 73 amendments with respect to civic engagement, as well as public participation, generally, for the May, 2016 edition of Municipal World that can be found here .

Finally, while we await a proclamation date for the majority of Bill 73, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing ("MMAH") has provided an outline of which amendments came into effect as of the date of Royal Assent (December 3, 2015):

• Subsection 1(2) of the Planning Act has been amended to restrict the ability of ministries other than the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to be added as a party to an Ontario Municipal Board appeal.
  
• Subsection 3(10) of the Planning Act has been amended to extend the review cycle of the Provincial Policy Statement from 5 to 10 years.
• Subsections 4(1) and 4(2) of the Planning Act have been amended to remove the references to “referral”, as the Minister does not have powers for site plan approvals that could be delegated.
• Subsection 22.1 has been added to the Planning Act to provide certainty that when new policies or laws come into effect, applications for official plan amendments are subject to the previous policies or laws only if the required supporting material (i.e. complete application) has been submitted prior to the transition date.

Additional information on Bill 73 is provided by the MMAH here.