There are many appointed boards in Canada, municipally, provincially and federally, but all boards, except the OMB, are below the respective level of government, not above. No other board but the OMB can over ride the decisions of an elected body.
Boards are set up to do the detailed work that elected councils don't need to do, or they perform a pre-selection and advisory role to an elected body. But democracy is flouted when elected politicians can be overruled by an appointed body.
The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) is an arms-length judiciary that handles land use disputes between municipalities and people and businesses. Its decisions are often controversial since it has the power to, and often does, over rule decisions made by elected municipal councils. Of course any organization, elected or unelected, can make bad decisions, but democracy is not served when elected politicians can be overruled by an appointed body.
It is costly to take a case before the OMB. Typically developers have the money for this but citizens do not — making the process unfair from the outset.
The OMB should be abolished and decision-making should be returned to elected politicians. Land use decisions should be made by elected politicians who are accountable to voters.
The existence of the OMB demeans and neuters elected councils. Council decisions can be ignored since developers can override them at the OMB.
Similarly, since the public has the option of challenging municipal decisions through the OMB there is little incentive to lobby or become involved in councils and municipal politics. Why bother becoming involved in local politics if your time and money is better spent in the courtroom of the unelected OMB?
Removing the option to appeal to the OMB will revitalize local democracy as local council decisions will become final, or at least till the next election when they can be removed. Small wonder very few people bother voting in municipal elections.
Local and provincial politicians will make wiser decisions regarding climate change, peak oil, gridlock, greenfield loss... if demanded to do so by the public.
Sprawl and big box store mentality must give way to walkable communities linked by transit. These are political decisions that must be made by elected and accountable politicians, not appointed boards.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Isn't the OMB required to ensure that green belts aren't overruled by localities? It's a classic collective action problem: it's not in the interests of rural areas just outside the greenbelt to depress their property values, so you need a decision-making body that takes into account more than just their local preferences.
ReplyDeleteJoshua, the Green Belt is overseen by provincial legislation, so no local municipalities nor the OMB have any jurisdiction to change it in any way.
ReplyDeleteBut where municipalities do have jurisdiction, the OMB can over ride their decisions, which I think is undemocratic and should be changed by putting the OMB below, not above, municipalities.