![](https://mhca.mb.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/planning-act-session-july-16-crop-1024x457.jpg)
The provincial government must protect access to aggregate resources, especially in the Capital Region, as municipalities continue to reject applications for pits and quarries, MHCA told consultants conducting a provincial review of the Planning Act.
The consultation is part of an intensive review of the Act; the review is expected to be complete by October, with recommendations to the provincial government, which then has a year to respond. The consultants met with MHCA and industry representatives July 16.
The Planning Act was amended in 2018, with the passage of Bill 19. Among the changes were: introduction of a provincial technical review of the proponent’s quarry application, to feed into a municipality’s decision-making process; at least 25 objectors required to trigger a public hearing prior to a municipal decision; and, the right to appeal a municipality’s decision to the provincial Municipal Board.
Among the points the Association and industry representatives made were:
- Quarry/pit applications continue to be rejected
- Right of appeal to Municipal Board seems to be used as a way for municipalities to defer decisions
- Provincial technical review reports are not given sufficient weight
- Municipal Board should be quasi-judicial in nature, with sufficient resources, to allow evidence to be called and tested, ensuring decisions are based on evidence
- Greater awareness and education for the public and municipal officials would help:
- underscore the importance of protecting access to aggregate resources, to push back on NIMBYism
- increase understanding of limits of municipal authority
- provide more consistency in application of rules and exercise of authority
- The provincial authority over land use should assert itself to ensure municipalities don’t have ability to sterilize aggregate resource zones
- The Municipal Board needs greater resources to reduce/prevent backlog that are delaying hearings and decisions
- Industry needs clarity, transparency, structure, set timelines, a responsive process, consistency and consequences to be built into both the legislation and the process followed at municipal level