In May 2025, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (Ministry) announced Bill 17, Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025, with a view to standardizing municipal development processes, reducing red tape and removing barriers to building and construction. Bill 17 came into effect on June 5, 2025, and Dentons previously reported on Bill 17 in our previous client alerts Ontario announces the Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025 to cut red tape and speed up home construction and Spring brings more changes: Ontario announces the 2025 budget, and Bills 2, 5 and 17 to cut red tape, speed up home construction and protect the economy).
On January 28, 2026, the Ministry published regulations under the Planning Act and City of Toronto Act, 2006 identifying “professional engineering” as a “prescribed profession” for the purposes of a complete application, following a commenting period on the Environmental Registry of Ontario (ERO) posting. The ERO posting and final decision can be accessed here.
This bulletin provides a summary of the changes made by Bill 17 to the Planning Act and an overview of the regulations identifying “professional engineering” as a “prescribed profession.”
Review of Bill 17 changes
Bill 17 amended a number of pieces of legislation, including the Planning Act (and corresponding amendments to the City of Toronto, 2006 Act). The Planning Act (and the City of Toronto Act, 2006) amendments made under Bill 17 permit certain minor variances “as-of-right,” broadened permissions for where schools could locate, and gave the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing authority to impose conditions to be met before a use permitted by a Minister’s Zoning Order comes into effect.
Other amendments related to standardizing requirements for the submission of a complete planning application with the intention of preventing disputes between municipalities and applicants regarding whether a complete application has been submitted. Specifically:
- Municipalities must obtain written approval from the Minister before adopting an amendment to an official plan that adds, amends or revokes any policies setting out the requirements for a complete application;
- The provision of information or material in respect of a requirement for a complete application is deemed to meet the applicable requirement if the information or material is prepared by a person authorized to practice a prescribed profession (with “prescribed professional” undefined at that time); and
- The Minister has the power to make regulations governing the information or material that is required (including the power to prohibit the requirement for specific studies/reports) in connection with official plan amendment, zoning by-law amendment, site plan approval, draft plan of subdivision and consent applications. These regulations would prevail over the requirements in existing official plans.
Changes to regulations
Following the introduction of Bill 17, the Ministry sought comments on regulations to standardize complete application requirements on the ERO posting, which included identifying certified professionals from whom municipalities would be required to accept studies. The Ministry’s proposal also contemplated limiting certain studies—such as sun/shadow, wind, urban design and lighting studies—from forming part of a complete application. However, no such changes have been implemented to date.
After receiving feedback on the ERO posting, the Ministry finalized its decision and regulations were published identifying professional engineering as a prescribed profession. The decision to prescribe professional engineering was made given the overall regulation of the engineering profession specifically, which is bound by strict codes of conduct and accountability for accuracy and integrity of work, as evidenced by the stamping and signing of a technical report or document by a professional engineer. This is stated in the decision as “help[ing] speed up development approvals and reduce some initial application costs associated with development proposals.” In making the decision to prescribe professional engineers, the Ministry considered alternative feedback, including from those that suggested automatic acceptance of studies by certain professions may increase the potential for errors, and removes checks and balances from the planning process.
As of January 28, 2026, six regulations are impacted by the changes that identify professional engineering as a prescribed profession. This means that municipalities are required to accept technical studies and reports prepared and stamped by professional engineers in the first instance as satisfying complete application requirements - without further review or revision. However, once an application has been deemed complete, municipalities retain full authority to review, analyze, and, if necessary, challenge or request further clarification regarding the technical study or report. Municipalities may undertake peer review of the material prepared by a professional engineer and may consider the results of that review when evaluating the merits of a development application.
Impacted regulations are set out below, noting that all are in force as of January 22, 2026:
- O.Reg. 197/96 (Consent applications/Planning Act): Amended by O.Reg. 6/26 by adding professional engineering as a prescribed profession under s.53(4.01) of the Act.
- O.Reg. 544/06 (Plans of Subdivision/Planning Act): Amended by O.Reg. 7/26 by adding professional engineering as a prescribed profession under s.51(19.0.1) of the Act.
- O.Reg. 545/06 (Zoning By-laws, Holding By-laws and Interim Control By-laws/Planning Act): Amended by O.Reg.8/26 by adding professional engineering as a profession under s.34(10.3.1) of the Act.
- O.Reg. 543/06 (Official Plans and Amendments/Planning Act): Amended by O.Reg. 9/26 by adding professional engineering as a profession under s.22(6.0.1) of the Act.
- O.Reg. 10/26 (Site Plan Control/Planning Act): Amended by O.Reg. 10/26 by adding professional engineering as a profession under s.41(3.5.1) of the Act.
- O.Reg. 11/26 (Site Plan Control/City of Toronto Act): Amended by O.Reg. 11/26 by adding professional engineering as a prescribed profession under s.114(4.4.1) of the Act.
There were also minor technical changes to O.Reg. 197/97 to meet accessibility standards (replacing certain images with text-based descriptions).
Conclusions
These recent regulatory changes identifying professional engineering as a prescribed profession are part of the Ontario government’s continued plan to standardize and streamline, with the desired goal of removing barriers and increasing the pace of construction.
