Controversial Ontario Bill 60 Now Becomes Law

Last Updated On 24 November 2025, 6:18 PM EST (Toronto Time)

The controversial New Ontario Bill 60, officially titled the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025, is now law after passing its third reading in the Legislative Assembly on November 24, 2025.

Bill 60 is a large omnibus law that amends 15 existing statutes and creates an entirely new Water and Wastewater Public Corporations Act, 2025.

Once it receives Royal Assent, it will formally become an Act of the Ontario Legislature.

It is aimed at speeding up housing and infrastructure delivery, changing planning and development rules, reshaping parts of the landlord-tenant system, and restructuring how some municipal services, like water, sewage, and roads, are governed.

This explainer article walks through what the new law does, when different parts take effect, and how it could affect tenants, landlords, drivers, municipalities, and anyone watching the housing file closely.

Why the Ontario government introduced Bill 60

The preamble to Bill 60 lays out the government’s stated goals. It says the province is committed to:

speeding up construction of homes and infrastructure; moving people and goods faster by reducing gridlock and accelerating transit; strengthening oversight of the driver’s licensing system; and reducing delays at the Landlord and Tenant Board so disputes can be resolved faster.

These themes mirror the government’s own news release from October 23, 2025, when the legislation was first introduced, which framed Bill 60 as a tool to “build homes and infrastructure faster” and tackle backlogs at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

In short, the government argues that regulations, slow planning approvals, and a jammed tribunal system are holding back construction and delaying decisions.

Bill 60 is presented as a package of changes designed to cut those delays across multiple sectors at once.

Summary Of What Ontario Bill 60 Changes

Bill 60 is divided into 16 schedules. Each schedule amends a different law or creates a new one.

Together, they cover:

Faster provincial transit delivery and municipal service coordination
New rules for development charges and local service policies
Changes to the Planning Act, including more flexibility for zoning standards and new ministerial powers
A ban, with exceptions, on municipalities reducing motor-vehicle lanes for certain purposes (like bike lanes) unless provincial rules allow it
New residency and immigration-status verification powers tied to driver’s licenses and Ontario photo cards
A future transfer of Peel Region’s water and sewage utilities to Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon
A new framework for provincially designated “water and wastewater public corporations” to run water and sewage services and charge fees
Amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 that affect eviction notices, late-payment rules, tenant rights at hearings, and timelines to seek reviews
Technical changes to transport, towing, waterfront redevelopment, local roads, and Ontario Water Resources laws

Because the bill is omnibus, different parts will matter to different people.

The sections below provide a detailed breakdown of the most important impacts for housing, tenants, drivers, municipalities and infrastructure.

How Bill 60 speeds up housing and infrastructure

1. Faster transit construction and municipal service access

Several schedules aim to accelerate transit projects and associated infrastructure, primarily by modifying the Building Transit Faster Act, 2020 and associated laws.

Key changes include:

References to “construction” of provincial transit projects are expanded to also cover “operation and maintenance,” which means the province can use these powers not only while building but also later when running transit.
The definition of “immediate danger to construction” is removed and replaced with a more flexible power that lets the Minister enter nearby properties and remove structures or vegetation that pose an immediate danger to the health and safety of people working on transit construction, operation or maintenance.
Notice periods given to property owners or utilities before certain actions are taken are cut from 30 days to 15 days in several sections, reducing waiting time.
A revised section 52 broadens the basis on which Metrolinx can require municipal service and right-of-way access, including alteration or relocation of municipal services and infrastructure such as sewage works, bridges, tunnels, fire hydrants and life safety systems.

In practice, this means provincial transit agencies will have more tools to quickly access and adjust municipal infrastructure that interacts with major transit projects, with shorter notice windows and broader scope.

2. Development charges and local service policies

Schedule 3 of Bill 60 changes the Development Charges Act, 1997.

The big ideas here are more transparency and more structure around how municipalities treat land acquisition and local services in their development charge by-laws.

Highlights:

A new “land acquisition class” is created. Development charge by-laws that impose charges for acquiring land for certain services must treat those costs as a separate class, with special rules for how future needs are estimated.
Municipalities must be able to provide the Minister with copies of development charge background studies and by-laws on request, by specific deadlines.
Reserve fund spending is clarified: funds set aside for a service can also be spent on land acquisition for that service, as long as those costs are not already funded from another dedicated land acquisition class reserve.
Municipalities are now required to establish “local service policies” for each service where some parts will be provided as local services. These policies must spell out which works are considered local services and be reviewed whenever a new development charge bylaw is passed.

For developers and municipalities, these changes will matter in how infrastructure costs are split between general development charges and “local” works that developers are expected to build or pay for directly.

3. Planning Act changes: more ministerial power, flexible zoning standards

Schedule 10, which amends the Planning Act, is one of the most consequential parts of Bill 60 for planning and land-use rules.

Some key shifts:

Ministerial decisions (except those affecting Greenbelt lands) no longer have to be “consistent with” provincial policy statements. A new subsection states that, other than decisions applying to land in the Greenbelt Area, the Minister’s decisions are exempt from that consistency requirement, and this is explicitly made retroactive to past decisions.
Upper-tier municipalities get clearer authority to designate community improvement project areas, while previous regulations that limited which upper-tier municipalities could do so are revoked.
New provisions allow minimum zoning standards (like minimum unit size or parking, if prescribed) to be reduced by a prescribed percentage and maximum standards to be increased by a prescribed percentage, without full zoning amendments. There are transition rules that lock in the standards applicable on the day a building permit is issued or lawful use is established.
Orders under section 47 (Minister’s zoning orders) will no longer be treated as regulations under Part III of the Legislation Act, 2006 going forward, but must be published on a government website. Similar changes are made to orders under the Ontario Planning and Development Act, 1994.
The Minister gains more tools to direct and resolve disputes related to required agreements between landowners and municipalities in areas under Minister’s orders, including the power to deem terms satisfied or require matters to be sent to the Ontario Land Tribunal for a final, non-appealable determination.

For builders, planners and municipalities, these changes mean more direct provincial control over key planning decisions and new ways to ease certain zoning standards, which the government argues will speed up housing approvals.

Critics have raised concerns that loosening consistency requirements and adding more ministerial discretion could reduce predictability and local input.

4. Transit station funding and timing of charges

Bill 60 changes the GO Transit Station Funding Act, 2023, allowing transit station charges for residential developments to be paid when people first move in instead of earlier, and it lets municipalities ask for a guarantee of that payment.

This shifts part of the financial burden closer to the time when a building actually starts being used, which may influence how projects are financed and sequenced.

What does Bill 60 mean for tenants and landlords?

One of the most controversial parts of Bill 60 is Schedule 12, which amends the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006.

Tenant organizations, legal clinics and social agencies have focused heavily on these changes, arguing they will make it easier for landlords to evict tenants and harder for tenants to exercise their rights.

Here are the main changes in plain language.

1. New rules for eviction notices and forms

Notices of termination given by landlords or tenants must be in a form approved by the Landlord and Tenant Board, unless a notice form is prescribed by regulation, in which case the prescribed form must be used.

This formalizes the existing practice and provides more flexibility for the Board and regulations to control exactly what information must be included in notices.

2. Compensation rules for “landlord’s own use” and similar evictions

Section 48.1 of the RTA deals with compensation or the offer of another unit when a landlord evicts someone because they or a family member want to move in or the property is being converted, demolished, or extensively renovated.

Bill 60 adds an important exception.

Under the new subsection 48.1(2), the requirement to compensate or offer another rental unit will not apply if:

The notice is given on or after the date Bill 60’s change comes into force
The termination date in the notice is at least 120 days after the notice is given
The termination date is the last day of a rental period or the end of a fixed-term tenancy

In practice, this means some tenants facing eviction under “landlord’s own use” type grounds may no longer have a guaranteed right to compensation or another unit, depending on how landlords time and structure their notices.

3. Non-payment of rent: shorter notice and “persistent late payment” by regulation

Bill 60 makes two key changes around non-payment.

The basic non-payment notice rule is updated so that if a tenant fails to pay rent lawfully owing, the landlord can give a termination notice effective as early as the seventh day after the notice is given.
What counts as “persistent failure to pay rent on time” will now be defined by regulation. Both for standard rental units and for co-operative housing charges, Bill 60 says that “persistent failure” is whatever the regulations say it is.

That gives the provincial Cabinet broad power to later set detailed criteria in regulations, such as how many late payments over what period might justify eviction as “persistent.”

4. Tenants must pay part of arrears before raising their own issues

One of the most debated changes is to section 82 of the Residential Tenancies Act.

Under current law, if a landlord files an application to terminate a tenancy for non-payment and evict a tenant, the tenant can raise any issues that could be the subject of their own application at that same hearing.

Bill 60 keeps that right, but adds new pre-conditions:

To raise their own issues at a non-payment hearing, tenants must now give advance notice of the issues, meet any procedural requirements, and, unless regulations create exceptions, pay:
- Half of the rent arrears claimed in the landlord’s application, and
- Any other amounts that may be prescribed by regulation
These amounts must be paid before the hearing and within timelines that may be set in regulations.

This is a major shift: tenants with limited income who are already in arrears may struggle to pay half the claimed amount up front in order to fully raise repair or harassment issues that might otherwise reduce what they owe or justify relief.

5. Limits on Board discretion and shorter review timelines

Bill 60 tightens several procedural aspects at the Landlord and Tenant Board:

The LTB’s power to set aside certain eviction orders is now restricted to “prescribed circumstances, conditions or tests.”
The Board’s power, under section 83, to refuse or delay eviction even when grounds are technically established is now made expressly “subject to any prescribed limitations or conditions.”
For both standard tenancies and certain co-op housing matters, similar constraints are added.
The timeframe to request that the LTB review its own decisions is set at 15 days from issuance of the decision, unless the Board considers it just and appropriate to extend the time.
A brand-new regulation-making section allows the provincial Cabinet to make transitional regulations dealing with issues arising from the Bill 60 amendments to the RTA, including delaying the effect of certain provisions or specifying how they apply to ongoing proceedings.

Tenant advocacy groups, including the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario and United Ways of Ontario, have responded by warning that Bill 60, especially Schedule 12, risks undermining security of tenure and making it much harder for low-income tenants to defend themselves at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

How Bill 60 affects drivers, bike lanes and photo cards

1. Residency and immigration-status checks for certain licenses

Bill 60 adds a new section 5.5 to the Highway Traffic Act. It allows the Minister of Transportation to require license, permit or certificate applicants to provide evidence that:

They are residents of Ontario
Their presence in Canada is legal under immigration and related laws
For certain prescribed classes of driver’s license or motor vehicle, they are legally able to work in Canada as the holder of that license and as a driver of that vehicle

The Lieutenant Governor in Council will be able to make regulations identifying which classes of licenses or vehicles this applies to.

Similarly, the Photo Card Act, 2008 is amended so the Minister can require evidence that applicants for Ontario photo cards are residents of Ontario and are legally present in Canada.

These provisions are framed as strengthening oversight of the driver’s licensing and identification system.

They also mean some newcomers or temporary residents may face additional documentation requirements when applying for or renewing licenses or photo cards.

2. Restrictions on reducing car lanes for bike lanes and other uses

Under a new section 195.3 of the Highway Traffic Act, municipalities are prohibited from reducing the number of marked lanes available for motor vehicles on a roadway under their control for:

A bicycle lane
Any other prescribed purpose

unless the reduction is allowed under provincial regulations.

There is a transition rule: if a contract has already been awarded or work has already started on a lane-reduction project the day before the prohibition takes effect, the project can proceed.

This gives the province a powerful say over future road reconfigurations such as road diets, some bike lane installations, or lane reductions for transit priority, unless they fall into exempted categories set by regulation.

Supporters see this as protecting roadway capacity; critics see it as an intrusion into local planning and climate-oriented street redesign.

3. Limited reimbursement for bike lane removals

Bill 60 clarifies that if municipalities provide support or information to the province when it orders removal or reconfiguration of bicycle lanes, the Minister may reimburse municipalities for the reasonable costs of that support or information.

However, the province is not required to reimburse any other costs, including the original cost of installing the bicycle lanes.

Water, sewage and new public corporations under Bill 60

1. A new Water and Wastewater Public Corporations Act, 2025

The final schedule of Bill 60 enacts a brand-new law: the Water and Wastewater Public Corporations Act, 2025.

Key points of this new Act:

The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing may, by regulation, designate a corporation incorporated under the Business Corporations Act as a “water and wastewater public corporation” to provide water and sewage services on behalf of specified lower-tier municipalities.
Once a corporation is designated for particular municipalities, those municipalities must provide water and sewage services only through that corporation as of a prescribed date.
The corporation’s duties include: ensuring safe, reliable and sustainable water and sewage services; planning, managing and investing in water and sewage infrastructure; setting rates; and complying with requirements in regulations.
The corporation has the power to impose and collect fees or charges, which become debts owed to the corporation.
Corporations must prepare annual reports, including audited financial statements, and provide other information as required by the Minister.
The Minister and the Lieutenant Governor in Council can make regulations covering board composition, share issuance, fees and charges, and how “rate plans” are prepared, approved or imposed if the Minister refuses to approve a plan.

The explanatory note also indicates that certain causes of action are “extinguished,” meaning some kinds of legal claims related to this new framework will no longer be available, though the precise scope would depend on detailed wording.

For residents, this could eventually mean that water and wastewater bills are set and collected by a provincially regulated corporation rather than directly by their municipality, at least in areas where such corporations are designated.

2. Peel Region water and sewage restructuring

Separate from the new corporations, Schedule 7 of Bill 60 amends the Municipal Act, 2001 to set up a future transfer of water and sewage public utilities from the Region of Peel to its lower-tier municipalities.

Jurisdiction over water and sewage public utilities is to be transferred from the Region of Peel to the City of Mississauga, City of Brampton and Town of Caledon within their geographic areas on a date prescribed by the Minister, or on January 1, 2029, if no date is prescribed earlier.
The Region is explicitly barred from passing bylaws to reverse this transfer and reclaim jurisdiction.

This fits into a larger redesign of governance in Peel, connecting to previous moves to restructure the region.

Other technical changes in Bill 60

Because Bill 60 is omnibus legislation, it also contains a long list of more targeted or technical amendments. Some of the notable ones include:

Local Roads Boards Act: Allows owners of certain tax-exempt land in local roads areas to make voluntary payments to the board for road work, subject to Ministerial approval, and requires better record-keeping of those payments.
Ontario Water Resources Act: Adjusts which agricultural and non-agricultural sewage works need formal approvals, especially based on design capacity thresholds like ten thousand or fifty thousand litres per day.
Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act: States that specified acts under that law do not and never have constituted expropriation or injurious affection for compensation purposes, and gives the Minister broad regulation-making powers to set technical standards and allow exceptions.
Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation Act, 2002: Adjusts timelines and procedures for winding up the corporation, including new dates like May 15, 2035 and January 31, 2031 for certain actions.
Towing and Storage Safety and Enforcement Act, 2021: If a regulation sets maximum rates for towing or vehicle storage services, operators no longer have to submit their own rate tables to the provincial Director.
Transit-Oriented Communities Act, 2020: Lets the Minister set up an advisory panel and require landowners in designated transit-oriented community areas to enter into specific agreements with municipalities about development, with municipal staff required to provide status reports and information to the Minister.

Most of these changes will matter mainly to specialized audiences like municipalities, planners, road engineers, and specific agencies, but they are all part of the overall theme of centralizing powers and speeding up infrastructure-related decisions.

When do the different parts of Bill 60 take effect?

The main body of Bill 60 states that, unless otherwise specified, the Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.

Each schedule then has its own commencement section: some come into force immediately on Royal Assent, some at a later date named by order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council, and some at the later of two specified events.

In practice, this means:

Some planning and development changes, transit powers and municipal finance provisions will start to apply as soon as Royal Assent is given.
Certain Construction Act changes are tied to the coming into force of earlier budget legislation, so they will start later when those pieces align.
Parts of the Transit-Oriented Communities Act amendments and other technical sections may only take effect on dates set in future orders.
The full impact on the Residential Tenancies Act and Landlord and Tenant Board may be staggered further through transitional regulations that can delay or condition how new provisions apply to existing cases.

For people directly affected, it will be important to watch for formal in-force dates and any transitional rules released by the province over the coming months.

Support and criticism: how Bill 60 is being received

Reactions to Bill 60 have been sharply divided, often along sectoral lines.

Supporters, including some real estate and development groups, have welcomed the passage of Bill 60 as a step toward cutting red tape and speeding up housing and infrastructure delivery.

On the other hand, tenant advocates, anti-poverty groups, public-health experts and some municipal leaders have strongly criticized Schedule 12 and the landlord-tenant changes, arguing they will:

Make it easier to evict tenants for non-payment or persistent late payment
Require cash-strapped tenants to pay half of alleged arrears just to raise repair or other issues
Limit the Landlord and Tenant Board’s ability to consider fairness and individual circumstances
Potentially fuel homelessness and housing instability, particularly in large cities like Toronto

These debates will likely continue as regulations are drafted and the new provisions begin to operate in real cases.

Frequently asked questions about Bill 60 Ontario 2025

What is Bill 60 in Ontario?

Bill 60 is the short name for the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025. It is a wide-ranging provincial law that amends 15 existing statutes and creates a new Water and Wastewater Public Corporations Act, 2025. Its main goals are to speed up housing and infrastructure, give the province more tools over planning and transit, change landlord-tenant rules, and restructure how some municipal services are delivered.

Has Bill 60 passed in Ontario?

Yes. Bill 60 has completed three readings in the Ontario Legislature as of November 24, 2025. Once it receives Royal Assent, it officially becomes law. Many of its schedules come into force immediately on Royal Assent, while others take effect on later dates set by regulation or linked to other legislative changes.

Does Bill 60 remove rent control in Ontario?

No, Bill 60 does not repeal rent control provisions themselves. Instead, it changes several procedural and substantive rules in the Residential Tenancies Act and at the Landlord and Tenant Board, including: shorter timelines to terminate tenancy for non-payment, new powers for the Cabinet to define “persistent” late payment, upfront payment requirements for tenants to raise issues at hearings, and limits on Board discretion and review timelines. These changes affect security of tenure and access to justice without directly changing annual rent increase limits.

What does Bill 60 mean for bike lanes and road design?

Bill 60 introduces a new prohibition in the Highway Traffic Act that stops municipalities from reducing the number of lanes available for motor vehicles to install bike lanes or for other prescribed purposes, unless the reduction fits within provincial regulations or exemptions. Existing projects that are already contracted or under construction are grandfathered. The province can later clarify, through regulations, where this prohibition does and does not apply.

How will Bill 60 affect my water and sewage services?

In the short term, most residents will not see immediate changes. Over time, in certain areas, water and sewage services may be provided by provincially designated “water and wastewater public corporations” instead of directly by municipalities, and in Peel Region, water and sewage utilities are set to be transferred from the regional to the local municipal level by 2029 at the latest. Rates, service levels and accountability structures will depend on future regulations, corporate decisions and municipal agreements under the new framework.

Satinder Bains

Satinder brings expertise, knowledge, and experience related to internal work flows at IRCC. She worked at Canadian Consulate in Chandigarh before moving to Canada. Her articles on “Chinook – An internal IRCC tool used to bulk process temporary applications” was one of the notable work on our news website