Data Centres and Building Code Review
Top Insights
- AMO’s submission to the provincial Data Centre Playbook consultation calls for a framework that balances data centre development with other provincial and municipal priorities and ensures tangible benefits for host communities.
- AMO’s advocacy on the Ontario Building Code review supports exploring opportunities to streamline building approvals while strengthening key outcomes, including strong energy efficiency standards that are increasingly important as municipalities can no longer set their own.
AMO’s Advocacy on the Proposed Provincial Data Centre Playbook
AMO has submitted comments to the provincial Data Centre Playbook consultation. We are pleased that the proposed Playbook reflects AMO’s previous advocacy by recognizing the need for a province-wide framework that balances the strategic opportunities data centres provide with the risks and impacts on host communities.
Our new submission, Balanced Priorities, Local Benefits: A Framework for Data Centre Development outlines five recommendations to provide clarity and consistency in how data centres are evaluated to help advance projects only where they are the right fit for Ontario’s economy and host community:
- Create a requirement and framework to balance provincial and municipal priorities alongside data centres.
- Give priority to Canadian owned companies.
- Give priority to projects that offer a community benefit agreement to ensure economic benefits accrue to host communities.
- Create a collaborative process for the review of proposed facilities that involves the province, municipalities, and Indigenous Communities.
- Commit to maintaining full municipal planning and development approvals.
AMO’s Submission to the Provincial Building Code Review
AMO has written to the Chair of the Building Code Short-Term Advisory Body with recommendations for the ongoing line-by-line review of the Ontario Building Code (OBC). The letter expresses AMO’s ongoing support for efforts that can help make building faster, easier and more affordable, while helping building officials review, approve and inspect projects more efficiently. These changes can help municipalities accelerate priority housing and economic development projects. AMO also recommends that changes to the OBC balance streamlining with protecting important outcomes like strong energy efficiency standards that municipalities no longer have the authority to require through local development standards.
