The Municipality of North Cowichan is asking the province to reconsider and collaborate with local governments.
According to mayor Rob Douglas, the Professional Reliance Act (Bill M-216) is a private member bill that was introduced to speed up housing development approvals by having municipalities accept technical submissions by industry professionals.
But in an open letter to the minister of housing and municipal affairs Christine Boyle, Douglas said the Professional Reliance Act (bill M-216) puts significant restraint on how municipalities not only do their job, but also how they interpret.
“This approach would significantly constrain municipal discretion in interpreting local bylaws where professional judgement is required, validating compliance with development permits guidelines, integrating planning, engineering, transportation, and environmental considerations,” said Douglas. “Bill M-216 would remove the ability to validate the context and compliance, even where municipal staff identify omissions, inappropriate assumptions, or local constraints no reflected in submissions.”
He adds there are several issues with the way the bill is worded and is worried the bill wouldn’t help municipalities and instead it would hurt them.
“We’re worried it could slow down development approvals,” said Douglas. “As it works now, the applicant will submit various studies to support the application, and in many cases revisions are needed, but under this Bill we’d lose that power.”
He said other worries he has is around liability around projects, and this bill could put the municipality and other regions at risk.
“We’re concerned that despite the way the legislation is framed that we could be exposed to significant risk if a problem arose from the technical submission,” said Douglas. “This would also de-regulate a core element allowing us to undertake our own review.”
Other concerns the municipality has about the act are environmental protection and land knowledge and dispute resolution.
