Bill 23: This Game of Chicken Will Have a Bad Ending [1] – Heritage Resources Centre, University of Waterloo, Nov. 20. 2022

A Nov. 20, 2022 article by Rebecca Sciarra at the Human Resources Centre website at the University of Waterloo is entitled: “Bill 23: This Game of Chicken Will Have a Bad Ending [1].”

An excerpt reads:

Rebecca is a Partner and Principal-Heritage-Specialist at ASI, one of Ontario’s oldest and largest heritage consulting firms. She leads the firm’s heritage evaluations, impact assessments, conservation plans, and engagement programs, undertaken to support development and planning projects involving significant buildings, sites, and landscapes. She has also worked for the Province of Ontario advising on: the application and interpretation of the Standards and Guidelines for Provincial Heritage Property and municipal conservation practices adjacent to the Rideau Canal World Heritage Site.

The Ontario Government’s introduction of Bill 23, the More Homes, Built Faster Act, 2022, proposes a series of significant changes to the Ontario Heritage Act (OHA). All of the proposed amendments require swift critique and analysis. Most concerning are those to Section 27 of the OHA. [2] These proposed changes, while incredibly substantial, are at the same time, short on substantive analysis of their potential outcomes. The amendments display a rash and rushed approach to regulatory change. The proposed changes will disrupt every community’s capacity and ability to steward those significant sites and places that are important to safeguard because of the important stories they tell.