Toronto·AnalysisRenters, cyclists and environmentalists are expressing frustration with the Ontario government’s latest omnibus bill, legislation to speed up new home construction that also introduces potential changes to residential tenancy rules, bike lanes and municipal planning. Legislation proposes changes to 16 laws impacting broad swath of issuesShawn Jeffords · CBC News · Posted: Oct 31, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 6 minutes Premier Doug Ford speaks at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference, in Toronto, on March 3, 2025. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)Renters, cyclists and environmentalists are expressing frustration with the Ontario government’s latest omnibus bill, legislation to speed up new home construction that also introduces potential changes to residential tenancy rules, bike lanes and municipal planning.Last week, Premier Doug Ford’s government introduced Bill 60, dubbed the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act. The legislation is another series of proposed changes aimed at making conditions more favourable for builders in the province to address the housing crisis. But it amends 16 different laws and NDP Leader Marit Stiles accused the government of “flooding the zone” in order to suppress pushback against the bill.“This has been this government’s tactic for years,” Stiles said. “Omnibus bills that are full of all kinds of measures, and you have to spend hours and hours and days and days to go through them. And it divides everyone. It divides the attention of the public.”Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack said Thursday the legislation will further simplify planning policy and standardize the calculation of development charges, making it easier to build in the province.Earlier this week, the province stepped back on considerations that were contemplated as part of the bill that may have ended rent control and indefinite leases in the future. Flack denied the government is in retreat over the bill after dropping those controversial elements.“This bill is a strong bill,” Flack said. “It’s creating the conditions to get more homes built faster. We’re creating stability. We’re creating predictability in the market, and there’s no retreat at all.”Housing Minister Rob Flack speaks at a news conference on Tuesday, April 25 at London City Hall, (Andrew Lupton/CBC)Housing advocates push backHousing advocates remain concerned that the bill makes structural changes at a key tribunal that adjudicates cases between renters and their landlords. The changes the bill proposes would hurt tenants rights, giving them less time to appeal decisions at the Landlord Tenant Board, and landlords a shorter timeline to have eviction proceedings heard, said Douglas Kwan, director of advocacy and legal services at the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario.“Renters will have less time to find and access a rent bank to support them when they’re falling on hard times, they will also have less time to find family or friends to try and help them,” he said.WATCH | Ontario bill looks to solve housing crisis:Ontario government tables new bill aimed at solving housing crisisOntario’s housing minister has announced a plan aimed at solving the housing crisis. The new legislation, which would speed up new home construction while lowering costs for developers, was tabled on Monday.Kwan said the legislation will also make it harder for tenants to withhold rent in the event that a landlord is neglecting unit maintenance. Instead, the Ford government would make it mandatory for a tenant to pay half of any rent arrears to a landlord before being able to raise the maintenance issues at the tribunal. And the bill also allows landlords to evict a tenant if they, or a family member, wants to live in the unit with four months notice.Currently, the law requires a landlord to give two months notice and provide one month’s rent as financial compensation. The suite of changes will hurt renters, Kwan said.“When we’re living in an affordable housing crisis and a homelessness crisis at the same time, we just can’t have these changes applied to Ontario,” he said. “It’s the wrong bill at the wrong time.”Flack said Thursday that tenant’s rights will remain strong at the tribunal.“We haven’t changed one protection in this bill,” he said.Ontario’s Minister of Transport Prabmeet Sarkaria, flanked by Chrystia Freeland and Mayor Olivia Chow, speak to reporters, in Toronto, on Nov. 29, 2024. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)Cycling advocates upset over changes to bike lanesCycling advocates are also raising concerns about the bill, saying this is the fourth time the Ford government has attempted to micromanage the placement of bike lanes under municipal control. Bill 60 would essentially act as a ban on new bike lanes across the province if they remove a lane of vehicle traffic, said Cycle Toronto executive director Michael Longfield.“It’s effectively blocking municipalities from making any progress with recycling network plans,” Longfield said. “And that’s not just Toronto — it’s across the whole province.”Transit advocates are also sounding the alarm about the vague nature of the wording in the legislation around the bike lanes. TTCRiders executive director Andrew Pulsifer said he’s concerned the legislation will give Ontario’s transportation minister the power to veto other lane uses, including dedicated transit lanes.“We want to put them on notice that transit riders will speak up and we will fight against any effort to curb our democratic rights to dedicated transit lanes,” he said.Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said last week that his intent is only to use the bill to restrict bike lanes.“The legislation will protect lane capacity by prohibiting the reduction of vehicle lanes when municipalities install new bike lanes,” he said.Province takes greater control of municipal planning, advocates sayEnvironmental Defence executive director Tim Gray called the legislation a “messy, complicated bill” that attacks progressive housing and transportation policy and centralizes power with the province. The bill will allow Ontario to overrule municipal official plans, trumping planning local authority, he said.“So people will now know … that any decision that occurs in their community, any new development in the middle of nowhere, anything that’s poorly planned, your municipality is going to have limited ability to influence that,” he said.Flack said the province has pushed the legislation forward to simplify complex planning rules for builders from community-to-community.“We have a housing crisis in this province,” he said. “We need to create the conditions to get shovels in the ground faster.”WATCH | Ontario misses the mark on housing goal:Ontario is far off its housing starts goalUpdated numbers show the Ontario government once again failed to meet its goal for housing starts, even with new ways of counting them. CBC’s Lorenda Reddekopp has the details — and reaction. Practical reasons to use omnibus bills, strategist saysWhile omnibus legislation is controversial, there are legitimate reasons for a government to use it, said Conservative strategist Mitch Heimpel. When a government wants to make a large volume of small changes it makes sense to introduce a single bill that aligns on the same theme, he said. “Governments like those bills because it allows them to make 30, 40, or 50 little changes in one piece of legislation, as opposed to needing 30, 40, or 50 pieces of legislation,” said Heimpel, who is vice president of government relations with Texture Communications.But Heimpel said sometimes governments use omnibus legislation to put unpopular elements in a larger bill.“If there’s a very unpopular change you want to make, burying it in a 16 schedule bill is a good way to have the signal get lost in the noise,” he said.ABOUT THE AUTHORShawn Jeffords is CBC Toronto’s Municipal Affairs Reporter, but is currently covering the Ontario Legislature. He has previously covered Queen’s Park for The Canadian Press. You can reach him by emailing shawn.jeffords@cbc.ca.
Ontario renters, cyclists, environmentalists concerned about Ford omnibus bill
