Title: Policy Obstacles to Brownfield Redevelopment in Ontario
Author: Natalie Antonowicz
Date: June 2011
Description: Despite recent legislative and regulatory reforms to encourage redevelopment of brownfield sites in Ontario, a number of policy obstacles remain. This report identifies and discusses six of these common concerns:
• liability and financing;
• municipal election structures;
• perverse subsidies and tax barriers;
• ownership constraints;
• land-use planning limitations; and
• leapfrogging to regions outside the GTA.
The report also compares Ontario's policy framework to those of the United States, United Kingdom and the province of Québec to explore strategies that have been adopted by other jurisdictions. Finally, the report makes several recommendations for Ontario to consider implementing to ensure that more of its brownfields are redeveloped.
