Advocacy on Bill 98 and Potential Amendments to the Police Record Checks Reform Act
Top Insights
- AMO supports measures in Bill 98 that enable more consistent and timely development approvals, and enshrine in legislation that municipal water and wastewater corporations must remain publicly owned.
- AMO welcomes provincial changes to help reduce wait times for police record checks, including vulnerable sector checks, in direct response to AMO's advocacy.
Bill 98: AMO Delivers Remarks to Standing Committee
Last week, AMO’s Director of Policy and Government Relations delivered remarks to a legislative standing committee on Bill 98, Building Homes and Improving Transportation Infrastructure Act, 2026, which if passed would:
- Streamline land-use planning by standardizing official plans, restricting the use of enhanced development standards, and set minimum lot sizes to support more urban density.
- Introduce a regulatory framework for communal water and wastewater systems and enshrine in legislation the public ownership of municipal water and wastewater corporations.
- Extend the One Fare program into Hamilton and Halton Region, and develop a framework for the Northlander Rideshare Pilot.
The province consulted on many of these measures before introducing the Bill, and many reflect AMO’s feedback, including ensuring water and wastewater corporations remain publicly owned. We are also pleased to see the province work with willing municipalities to test and refine standardized Official Plans before mandatory roll-out across the sector.
At Standing Committee, AMO made recommendations to the province about Bill 98 including:
- Listening to technical feedback from municipal planners about how to implement and balance streamlined planning with flexible tools for municipalities to effectively manage growth and meet local needs. This will ensure changes to rules like minimum lot size and development standards do not undermine important considerations like stormwater mitigation and emergency responder access to homes.
- Ensuring the communal servicing framework provides clarity and consistency without creating unfair advantages for private systems or long-term liabilities to municipalities. This will help make sure that private systems do not undermine long-term infrastructure planning and financing.
- Offsetting any municipal transit fare revenue lost through fare and service integration.
Province Speeding Up Police Record Checks
The provincial government announced it will introduce legislation to amend the Police Record Checks Reform Act, 2015, to help reduce the wait times for vulnerable sector checks.
In December, AMO submitted comments to the province encouraging the government to consider standards that would improve timeframes and processing times for record checks, especially vulnerable sector checks. AMO will review the legislation in more detail, but welcomes the province’s proposed changes and is encouraged that the government is acting in response to AMO's advocacy to help address some of the operational challenges that municipalities have been experiencing.
