New versions of Ontario Building Code 2024 (O. Reg. 163/24), Development Charges Act. and City of Toronto Act have been published.
The changes has been announced in CodeNews Issue 373:
New Occupancy Permit Requirements in the Building Code for Deferred Development Charges
The Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act, 2025 (Bill 17) amended the Development Charges Act, 1997 to allow payment of the local/lower tier and regional/upper tier portion of development charges for non rental residential developments to be deferred from building permit issuance to either (a) issuance of an occupancy permit or (b) first occupancy of the building.
To operationalize this policy and improve collection certainty, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing amended Ontario's 2024 Building Code (Ontario Regulation 163/24).
Effective November 3, 2025, occupancy permits are now required for all non-rental residential projects with deferred development charges. A municipality cannot issue the occupancy permit until the municipality confirms the deferred development charges are paid in full. Municipalities will be allowed up to 10 business days to complete the occupancy inspection for these developments in order to allow time for processing of the payment of deferred development charges, if necessary.
Municipalities may continue to issue building permits as they do today. This is a timing change only for collection of municipal development charges where the applicant elects for deferral. Construction requirements determining when a building is safe for occupancy are also unchanged.