Less than one year into its operation, the Province has announced that the Local Planning Appeal Support Centre (LPASC) is being shut.
LPASC was launched in April 2018 to help people understand and navigate the land use planning and appeal process in Ontario. The LPASC Act, 2017 mandated the establishment and administration of a cost-effective and efficient system for providing support services, and to establish criteria for determining the eligibility of persons to receive the support. The LPASC has until June 30, 2019 to wind down the business. Effective immediately, LPASC will no longer be accepting new requests for professional services from the public.
The Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods (Ontario) has sent the following letter to the Ontario Government protesting this action.
February 25, 2019
Honourable Caroline Mulroney
Minister of the Attorney General
Honourable Steve Clark
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing
RE: Cancellation of Local Planning Appeal Support Centre
This is to protest the cancellation of the Local Planning Appeal Support Centre (LPASC), less than one year into its operation. The establishment of the Centre was warmly welcomed by many stakeholders including Resident and Ratepayers Associations across the Province.
As Mary Lee, Executive Director, LPASC stated, “Land use planning is complicated, and we are here to help the public engage early in planning and navigate the appeals process as quickly and effectively as possible.” The Centre was engaged in a consultative process asking: ”what services would be most important to you?”, and “what additional services could be provided?” The government did not wait for the results of the consultation, choosing instead to cancel the organization. The cancellation is deeply disappointing. We call on the Provincial Government, if you are truly “For the People” to reverse this unfortunate and short-sighted decision.
Yours truly,
Geoff Kettel, President
c.c.Premier Doug Ford
Sara Singh, NDP Critic for AttorneyGeneral
Jeff Burch, NDP Critic for Municipal Affairs and Housing
Mayor Tory and Toronto City Council
February 25, 2019 Letter to Attorney General re: Cancellation of LPASC (PDF)