HALDIMAND — Many were surprised to learn recently that the hotly contested Minister’s Zoning Order request for a proposed large-scale residential and commercial development by Empire Communities in Nanticoke is already in the Province’s hands.
Ward 6 Councillor Patrick O’Neill asked for clarification about the status of the MZO request at the March 18, 2025 Council-in-Committee meeting. He noted the ongoing claims from some byelection candidates who would oppose the MZO, and the community’s ongoing questions about it.
O’Neill said that while at a weekend event, he was approached for his opinion on the topic, and admitted, “I don’t know whose hands that’s in”; he requested the answer for future inquiries.
Community and Development Services Manager Mike Evers responded, “What we know is quite limited.”
He continued, “Coming out of the decision that Council made on the new MZO framework back in August of last year, Empire put in, as it’s permitted to do, its request to the Ministry for the MZO through its MZO portal.”
Evers described how he had “just received a verification that was done mid-September of last year, and that’s pretty much what we know.”
Evers iterated that no final decision has been made on the request, and that Haldimand County has no information in terms of where the request is in the process, or if it’s even begun to be reviewed: “All we know is that Empire did the piece that it set out to do, which was making a submission through the Ministry’s portal.”
O’Neill followed up, “Is it no longer in our hands?”
Evers replied, “I would say that’s a fair way to characterize it. At the end of the day, this is a decision of the Minister, and the Minister will make that decision based on everything that is in front of him.… It really is out of our hands, and we just sit and wait for a decision one way or another from the Minister.”
Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley, a staunch anti-MZO critic who ran her 2022 campaign based on opposition to it, stated, “That’s very interesting, because when we spoke with Economic Minister Fedeli at ROMA in January, he said he wasn’t aware of any MZO on the table. We were there, we all heard that. And then the housing minister, I asked him a few times and he said there was no MZO on the table.”
Bentley noted that when she looked on the Environmental Registry of Ontario (ERO), she could find no trace of the MZO.
The Zoning Order Framework found on the provincial government’s website notes that, while “not required under the Planning Act, the minister will provide public notice of requests for zoning orders that have met the zoning order framework requirements through a minimum 30-day posting on Ontario’s Environmental Registry, except where the request for zoning relief is deemed time sensitive.”
It also states that under the Planning Act, notice of a zoning order is required to be given within 30 days of it being made in the manner considered proper by the minister.
“The ministry will post an information bulletin on the Environmental Registry after the making of a zoning order, in addition to providing a copy of the regulation to the clerk of the local municipality, if any, where the affected lands are located,” reads the framework.
Bentley said she could find no trace of such a notice related to the Nanticoke MZO through her research, asserting, “There should have been a 30-day window of opportunity for the public to address, but I’ve looked back, and I can’t find it.”
Evers confirmed he had also tried to find the notice but couldn’t locate it. Evers contacted the Municipal Affairs Southwest Office and reported, “The director of planning there confirmed to me that in fact the submission did go in in mid-September of 2024. His office received verification of it. We did not receive verification of it, but that’s the extent of what I know on the matter.”
“Is that typical?” asked Bentley.
Evers replied, “I don’t have a great answer on that because MZOs are very rare. In terms of how the Ministry runs the process, we don’t have a track record with that, this is the first one that the County has ever dealt with, the first one I’ve seen in my career.”
He continued, “It’s a process that really is in their hands, not driven by us. We don’t receive any updates, as evidenced by how much we know around the horseshoe.”
In a 2022 split vote, Council originally passed a resolution for a County-submitted MZO request in 2022, based on staff recommendations that supporting the application would give Haldimand a better seat at the planning table if it proceeds. That application was deemed invalid following changes to the provincial MZO policy last year. Under the new framework, Empire was then able to apply directly for an MZO themselves.
Following a strong opposition mounted by Bentley, MPP Bobbi Ann Brady, and many members of the public, Haldimand Council, following recommendation from County staff, voted 4-3 in favour of passing a motion to show support for Empire submitting an application. Staff advised in a report at the time that such an approach would make Empire Communities responsible for paying to prepare the MZO submission, not Haldimand taxpayers.
Despite these advancements, the issue continues to be a hot topic, discussed at both Ward 1 candidate debates, and mentioned by five of the eight byelection candidates in their Haldimand Press candidate profile interviews across Wards 1 and 4.
The Press contacted the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for an update on the status of the MZO and for an explanation for why the County wasn’t notified sooner of the submitted application or a posting made on the Environmental Registry.
Emma Testani, Press Secretary for Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack, replied, “No decision has been made on the request for a Minister’s Zoning Order in Haldimand County at this time.”
On the MZO’s lack of an ERO listing to date, Testani answered, “No decision has yet been made as to when or if this MZO will be listed on the Environmental Registry of Ontario. That step can occur at different stages of the ministry’s review process for Ministerial Zoning Orders, depending on the particular request.”
On how the Nanticoke MZO will be reviewed, Testani said that the Minister will only consider orders that meet at least one of the intake thresholds:
- Requests that deliver on a provincial priority that is supported by a minister (for example, long-term care, hospitals, transit-oriented communities, educational facilities, housing priorities, economic development, manufacturing, etc.)
- Requests that are supported by a single-tier or lower-tier municipality (for example, through a municipal council resolution or a letter from a mayor where the municipality has been designated with strong mayor powers).
Testani noted, “Haldimand County passed a council resolution on June 18, 2024, indicating support for this MZO request. As per the government’s MZO Framework, the ministry will only consider requests that are supported by a single or lower-tier municipality.”
