Could this be the end of green building standards in Ontario — again?

PC MPP Rob Flack attends Question Period at Queen's Park in Toronto on Tuesday, May 13, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

Premier Doug Ford’s government is taking another swipe at green standards while nixing a requirement for municipalities to build climate change goals into their official plans. 

The new changes would roll back municipal enhanced development standards that require developers to improve park access, add tree canopy, install electric vehicle-ready parking spots, apply bird-friendly window coating or implement other mandatory sustainable design features beyond what’s set out in Ontario’s building code or required to maintain health and safety. 

Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack says the proposed changes outlined in last week’s transit and housing bill will help to standardize building requirements and get homes to market faster and more affordably. 

But critics argue that further rolling back green standards will block municipalities from a tool to make their communities more livable and resilient to climate change impacts, from extreme heat to flooding. At the same time, they say, the change may pad the profits of some developers, expand the use of natural gas and saddle home and building owners with future retrofit costs. 

Halton regional councillor Jane Fogal called it a “gut punch.” She said Halton Hills, like other municipalities, took up a green standard in part because the province’s building code was lagging behind on sustainable design and energy efficiency.

“We’re getting a better product for the people that buy the houses. A house that’s better built, that is more efficient, that’s less costly for them to operate,” said Fogal. 

“There’s nothing to say that you will get a better town if the developers can just do whatever they want to do.” 

Ontario took a run at green standards in 2025 housing legislation that yielded contradictory interpretations. Some industry groups said last year’s changes would end green standards, but Toronto concluded it retained the ability to enforce its rules. 

That came after former housing minister Steve Clark, who resigned over the Greenbelt controversy, had walked back parts of a 2023 housing bill and voiced his support for the goals behind green standards after critics said it would limit municipalities’ powers to enforce them.

This latest bill looks to put the confusion to rest. Under the proposed changes, municipalities not only can’t use green standards to mandate how a building is designed, but they also can’t apply them to features outside a building, such as landscaping or parking, said provincial officials who briefed reporters on the legislation last week. 

In a statement, the minister’s spokesperson Michael Minzak said “by making municipal enhanced design standards voluntary and reviewing site plan broadly we are helping to get shovels in the ground by improving project viability and lowering costs for homebuyers.” 

The legislation also blocks Toronto from requiring EV-ready parking spots in new builds, a measure the Ford government stripped from the provincial building code shortly after it came to power. Municipal plans would also no longer be required to include goals and actions to cut planet-warming emissions or provide for climate change adaptation. 

Some development groups say a patchwork of green standards added complexity to the approvals process and drove up building costs. The Residential Construction Council of Ontario, one of the most vocal critics, sued Toronto over the standard in a case still before the courts. 

“We see Bill 98 as hopefully the final chapter in making this absolutely clear that municipalities do not have the right to unilaterally and individually go off and create their own green building standards,” said the group’s president Richard Lyall. 

Former Toronto mayor David Miller, who helped bring in the city’s green standards, called the province’s attempt to scrap them an “own goal against helping to secure our communities’ future.” 

“Cutting corners on new construction locks in higher energy bills, greater risks from heat waves and flooding and expensive retrofits down the road — costs that will ultimately be borne by residents,” he said in a statement. 

A 2017 Toronto staff report estimated the city’s existing standards would add about 2.1 to 3.5 per cent to the cost of new residential and commercial office buildings compared to those built only to the minimum requirements of the provincial building code. 

The added upfront cost for an average Canadian net-zero building could be closer to around eight per cent, but come with possible life-cycle cost savings due to energy efficiency gains and less reliance on fossil fuels, according to a 2019 report from the Canada Green Building Council. 

More than a dozen Ontario municipalities have adopted green standards since Toronto introduced its program in 2010. 

Toronto’s standard requires new builds to offer EV-ready parking spots in new builds along with bike parking in mid- and highrise developments. To help stave off extreme heat and urban heat islands, it also encourages more tree canopy and pavement that reflects more sunlight. Landscaping must include native plants and windows need to be treated to prevent bird collisions. New buildings are also required to model their energy use and meet certain emissions benchmarks. 

None of those features are required by the province’s building code. 

Toronto’s current standards progress in predictable steps. More stringent voluntary steps will eventually become mandatory for developers as the city works towards a 2040 goal to decarbonize all new buildings. 

Several other cities in the GTA, including Brampton and Markham, use a points-based system. Energy efficiency, EV-ready parking spots, tree canopy and better waste management will rack up points, but developers have some flexibility in how they meet the minimum requirements. 

Buildings account for around one-quarter of Ontario’s emissions and more than half of Toronto’s, largely because of gas-powered electricity and heating.

The proposed changes strip cities of a tool to design their communities based on those local needs, said Evan Wiseman, a senior climate policy manager at The Atmospheric Fund. 

“These changes will improve the profit margins for developers, but our communities will suffer. It’s unfortunate because a lot of good developers will continue to build well, they’ll continue to do the right thing, but if a developer doesn’t care, then there isn’t any way for the municipality to intervene now,” said Wiseman.

“More (gas) build-outs will occur, rates will likely go up and this will not meaningfully change how things get built in Ontario,” said Wiseman.

High inflation rates, rising construction costs, labour shortages and tariff-related economic uncertainty have all contributed to a slowdown in Ontario home construction. Housing prices are falling, and a recent TD report suggests the GTA is the province’s weakest market. 

Municipal site plan-related delays are costing Ontario’s economy $3.5 billion per year, according to another recent study. But the Ontario Association of Architects, the group that commissioned the study, says green standards are not what’s fuelling that delay. 

To the contrary, some argue the green standards simplify approvals by bringing different design requirements under one policy. 

“I think most developers are as interested in good outcomes as anyone else is. And I just saw no evidence that developments approvals are slowed because of this,” said Giulio Cescato, the director of planning and urban design with the City of Markham, which harmonized its program with three other GTA cities. 

“If there is a patchwork of measures, then it seems to me the obvious solution would be to standardize them rather than eliminate them altogether,” said Cescato. 

As part of the rollout of the new housing legislation, the minister pledged to strike an advisory panel to do a full review of the province’s building code. 

The president of Ontario Association of Architects, the profession’s regulator in the province, says there should be a carveout for green standards while that review takes place.

Meanwhile, the review should consider the inclusion of an energy step code, president Lara McKendrick said in a statement. 

Step codes — such as the one adopted in British Columbia and that helped inform Toronto’s green standard — set out incremental performance-based energy efficiency standards that get tighter over time. In B.C., cities can adopt more stringent steps ahead of the minimum provincewide changes. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2026.

Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press