BUILDING DURHAM

There are some important updates that members should be aware of with respect to the COVID-19 Worker Income Protection Benefit Program (paid sick days). The full website can be found here with all relevant detail. New and important details are noted below.

WSIB Claim for Reimbursement Portal

Members can find the portal here for submitting a claim for reimbursement. A reminder that employers are entitled to be reimbursed the amount of infectious disease emergency leave pay that they paid to their employees, up to $200 per employee per day taken, with a maximum of 3 days per employee.

Check the status of your claim

Once you submit your claim you will receive a claim confirmation number. You can check your claim status with the WSIB for an up-to-date view on the progress of your claim.

Payment Schedule

Payments are scheduled to begin by the end of June and happen on a bi-weekly basis thereafter. It is expected that it will take approximately two weeks to process an approved claim. The timing of payment depends on the completeness and complexity of the claim.

Paid leave under existing contract

Employees who have rights to paid leave under their employment contract (which includes a collective agreement) may not be eligible for paid infectious disease emergency leave or may be entitled to fewer than three days of paid infectious disease emergency leave under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA).

For an employee’s three-days of ESA paid leave to be reduced, all four of the following criteria must be met.

On April 19, 2021:

1. The employee had the right to a paid leave under their employment contract for one or more of the same reasons that paid infectious disease emergency leave can now be taken under the ESA. 
2. The employee had not already used up those days of paid leave under their employment contract before April 19, 2021 and those days were still remaining.
3. The employee’s employment contract provided pay for the leave that is at least as much pay as the employee would be entitled to receive for paid infectious disease emergency leave under the ESA.
4. The employee’s employment contract did not contain conditions for taking the leave that are more restrictive than what is set out in the ESA for taking paid infectious disease emergency leave.

Where all four of these criteria are met, the employee’s three-day entitlement to paid infectious disease emergency leave under the ESA is reduced by the number of days available under their employment contract that meet the four criteria. 

Employee opt-out of paid leave

Receiving paid infectious disease emergency leave may affect an employee’s eligibility for, or amount of, benefits under other programs. To avoid this outcome, employees may choose not to receive the infectious disease emergency leave pay they are entitled to. To do this, employees must advise their employer in writing of their decision to take the time as unpaid infectious disease emergency leave.

This written notice of their decision must be made before the end of the pay period in which the leave occurs.

Proof of entitlement to leave

Employers may require evidence reasonable in the circumstances at a time that is reasonable in the circumstances that the employee is entitled to the leave. What is considered reasonable in the circumstances will depend on all of the facts of the situation. However, employers cannot require an employee to provide a certificate from a doctor or nurse as evidence.  

If it is reasonable in the circumstances, evidence may take many forms, such as:

• a copy of the information issued to the public by a public health official advising of quarantine or isolation
• a copy of an order to isolate that was issued to the employee under s. 22 or s. 35 of the Health Protection and Promotion Act
• an email from a pharmacy or from a public health department indicating the employee’s appointment date and time to receive a COVID-19covid 19 vaccination.

Unpaid infectious disease emergency leave taken between April 19, 2021 and April 28, 2021

Although the ESA was amended on April 29, 2021, the entitlement to paid infectious disease emergency leave is deemed to have started on April 19, 2021. Eligible employees who took an unpaid infectious disease emergency leave between April 19, 2021 and April 28, 2021, for a reason for which they can take paid leave, can choose to take those days as paid leave instead. To make this decision, employees must have advised their employer in writing no later than May 12, 2021.   

Get help

For specific-claim related inquiries once you have a claim confirmation number or technical issues with submitting a claim, please request support and a claims specialist will reach out to you.

For more general information on eligibility criteria, how to apply and program rules, please call the Ontario COVID-19covid 19 Worker Income Protection Benefit Information Centre 1-888-999-2248 ( TTY: 1-866-567-8893).

At the Monday, June 7th Planning and Development Committee meeting in Clarington, Mayor Adrian Foster put forward a motion, seconded by Councillor Zwart:

"That staff investigate and report back on the potential for implementation of 'Whitby Green Standard' within Clarington's existing green initiatives including options for more environmentally friendly roofing options."

Mayor Foster opened the discussion by saying that the motion was self-evident.

"I understand that..a lot of the work has already been done on this and it gives us an opportunity to make some potentially tangible steps forward," he said.  "Certainly we heard from the group of students earlier and Toronto has done some work as well."

Councillor Neal followed with his comments.

"I've raised this a number of times about Clarington trying to get developers to stop using asphalt shingles, which are 100% guaranteed to go in a landfill somewhere and I seem to always get met by silence and I'm not sure why," said Neal.   "I know Whitby is greatest place in the world but they have the same issue going on and every house that's being built has asphalt shingles and they are all going in the landfill, and so I'd like to hear something concrete about what we can do about that as a municipality, because I think we could probably do better as it gets right down to it.  Just my thoughts.  I'd like to hear something other than silence on that, that's all I'm saying."

Councillor Hooper weighed in with his thoughts.

"When I did a little bit of research on this, the Whitby Green Standards, it says at the bottom of the page, several already have green standards in place and we, meaning the municipality of Clarington, is already included, along with Toronto, Richmond Hill, Brampton, Vaughn, Mississauga, Halton Hills and Pickering," said Hooper.  "Can staff please provide our committee with what our green development standards are?  And are our developers aware of what they are at the present time?"

Faye Langmaid, manager of special projects, planning and development for Clarington, said "we do have green development standards that were done as part of Priority Green and we can send you the links on them and I believe that the report that the Mayor and Councillor Zwart are asking for here will fully cover what those green standards are.  As part of the secondary plans we were dealing with at the most recent meeting, some of those development standards were actually being implemented in the policy aspect so we could implement them as developers came in with them."

Mayor Foster closed the discussion by stating that the motion was designed to look at the Whitby Green Standards within Clarington's existing green initiatives.

"So the theory is to see what's being done and what we might be able to easily pick up and integrate with what we are already doing," said Foster.

The motion was carried unanimously.

DRHBA has reached out to staff to start a discussion on this matter and ensure that the voice and concerns of the building industry are heard.

DRHBA maintains that municipalities cannot mandate above the Ontario Building Code, and acquired a legal opinion on the Whitby Green Standards that supports this position.

Anyone with concerns is encouraged to contact Stacey.

The Ontario Home Builders' Association (OHBA) and EnerQuality are working together to deliver job-ready, unskilled labourers to qualified OHBA members in the GTA, including Durham Region.

Through this program, OHBA and EnerQuality will manage all aspects of employee recruitment, screening, interviewing and onboarding.  They will also provide ongoing weekly program support to participating employers and to employees to ensure success for all parties involved.

Please click here for more information.

The Region of Durham has completed their Schedule B Municipal Class Environmental Assessment for Water Street Sanitary Sewage Pumping Station Capacity Expansion in Port Perry in the Township of Scugog.

The Project File Report will be posted until July 15, 2021 at durham.ca/WaterStreetSSPS.

The Notice of Completion can be viewed here

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The Region of Durham's Planning & Economic Development Committee will be reviewing report 2021-P-17 (Planning Application Processing Fees and Charges) on Tuesday, June 1, 2021 at 9:30 a.m.  

The report's next stop will be at Regional Council, and if passed, the new fees will come into effect on July 1, 2021.

The new fees are as follows:

Area Municipal Official Plan Amendment (AMOPA)

Exempt Review Fee $3,500

Non-exempt Review Fee $5,000

Plan of Subdivision and Condominium

Delegated Municipalities (Ajax, Clarington, Oshawa, Pickering, Whitby)

Subdivision Review Fee $5,000

Subdivision Review Fee – additional phases $3,000

Condominium Conversion Review Fee  $2,000

Phased Condominium Review Fee $2,000

Vacant Lot Condominium Review Fee $2,000 

Non-delegated Municipalities (Brock, Scugog, Uxbridge)

Review Fee $6,000

Final Approval Fee $1,500

Major Revision $1,500

Review Fee – subdivision – additional phases $3,000

Consent (severance, lot line adjustment, etc.)

Application Fee $1,350

Stamping Fee $1,000

Site Plan

Minor Review Fee for applications made under the Aggregate Resources Act $1,000

Major Review Fee for applications made under the Aggregate Resources Act $5,000 

Other Fees

Costs to administer Peer Review study (per peer review round) $500

Minor Minister’s Zoning Order Amendment application review $1,500

Major Minister’s Zoning Order Amendment application review $5,000

LPAT Appeal processing fee $500

Interested members can view the livestream of the meeting here.

The Region of Durham began development of a 20-year Long-term Waste Management Plan in 2020.  Regional council approved guiding principles, a vision and five objectives for the new Waste Plan earlier this year and staff are now developing draft targets and actions to support meeting the objectives.  This fall, staff will launch a public consultation that will include an online open house with a survey and virtual town hall for live questions and answers.  Public consultation is expected to launch in mid-September and be completed in mid to late October.

Details of the approved guiding principles, vision and objectives along with background information on the work completed so far and the archived 2020 public consultation can be found on their website: www.durham.ca/WastePlan.  Details and links to the 2021 public consultation efforts will also be posted on this page when available.

The Region of Durham welcomes the input from members of the Durham Region Home Builders' Association.

The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks is hosting an engagement session on Ontario's proposed Land Use Compatibility Guide on Tuesday, June 1, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.  The accompanying ERO posting can be found here outlining the details of the proposed Land Use Compatibility Guidelines changes

Interested members should register for the session and please direct any feedback to Alex Piccini, Manager of Government Relations, OHBA, to assist OHBA in developing an association response.  The deadline to submit comments on the ERO posting is July 3, 2021.

The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks have posted proposal details for draft Regulations to support recent amendments to the Conservation Authorities Act.  Posted to the Environmental Registry of Ontario for public consultation until June 27^th, the proposal can be accessed via the following link: https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-2986 with additional detail found in the Consultation Guide accessible here.

On December 8, 2020, Bill 229, the Protect, Support and Recover from COVID-19 Act (Budget Measures), 2020, which made changes to both the Conservation Authorities Act and the Planning Act, received Royal Assent.  Those changes aim to:

• Improve consistency and transparency of the programs and services that CAs deliver;         
• Provide additional oversight for municipalities and the province; and
• Streamline CA permitting and land use planning reviews to increase accountability, consistency and transparency. 

Where We Are Now:

The MECP is now moving forward with the first of two phases of regulatory proposals to implement the changes detailing the requirements for programs and services (bullet one above), and how they should be implemented.  New regulations are being proposed to focus CAs on their code mandate by prescribing mandatory programs and services that they must provide, give municipalities greater control over what CA programs and services they will fund, and to require Community Advisory Boards.
Specifically, the first phase of proposals for the proposed regulations are focused on the following:

• Mandatory programs and services conservation authorities would be required to provide, including core watershed-based resource management strategies.
• A requirement for agreements between conservation authorities and their participating municipalities for the use of municipal levies to fund non-mandatory programs and services an authority determines are advisable in its jurisdiction
• The transition period to establish those agreements including an inventory of the authority’s programs and services, the consultation process with participating municipalities on the inventory, and steps taken to enter into these agreement(s) with participating municipalities for the use of municipal levies for these non-mandatory programs and services
• The consolidation of the current individual conservation authority ‘Conservation Area’ regulations made under Section 29 of the Conservation Authorities Act into one Minister’s regulation.  This would set out, for example, prohibited activities and activities requiring permits on conservation authority owned lands.
• Requirements for each conservation authority to establish a community advisory board to include members of the public, and how they may be governed.

Next Phase:
 
The second phase of proposed regulations under the Conservation Authorities Act, which the MECP will consult on next will include:

• Municipal levies governing the apportionment of conservation authority capital and operating expenses for mandatory programs and services and for non-mandatory programs and services under municipal agreement.
• Provisions pertaining to municipal appeals of conservation authority municipal levy apportionments, including who would hear those appeals.

Your Input: 

We welcome members to review the regulatory proposals and the Consultation Guide and send any comments to OHBA Manager of Government Relations, Alex Piccini apiccini@ohba.ca no later than Friday, June 18^th to assist in forming an association response.  We will also keep you informed as additional material comes forward.

Is Home Ownership Still a Reality?  Register Now!

Ontario’s current housing market is challenging many to reconsider home ownership, but we can’t ignore the elephant in the room, that Ontario continues to be a destination for more people and that means we need to continue to plan new communities and build more homes.

At this time, municipal and regional governments across Ontario are making their plans for the future of housing in their communities, and the RBC polling data gives us some insights into how #homebelievers are feeling about today’s housing market, and what they need in the future.

OHBA welcomes all members, municipal and regional representatives and government and elected officials to join OHBA for this important webinar as we dive into the recent RBC Spring Housing Poll and discuss why almost 40% of Ontarians under 40 have given up on the dream of owning a home. 

Register Here

The Durham Region Home Builders' Association has been working with the Town of Whitby over the last several months to create a Building Industry Liaison Team that will allow members of the building industry and municipal staff to meet and discuss issues, upcoming programs, plans and bylaws.

The first meeting is scheduled to take place this Fall, and attendance will be limited.  If you are interested in being a part of the Building Industry Liaison Team, please contact Stacey as soon as possible to be added to the list.