Bill 60: Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025

Will Faster Processes Lead to More Homes?

By John Fox and Ishmeet Juneja

On October 23, 2025, the Ontario government introduced Bill 60, the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act 2025, an omnibus bill intended to cut red tape, speed up construction timelines, and support the delivery of new homes, roads, and infrastructure across Ontario.

To advance these goals, the Bill proposes amendments to several key statutes, including the Residential Tenancies Act, the Planning Act, the Construction Act, and the Development Charges Act, with the aim of reducing regulatory complexity and creating greater predictability as Ontario pursues its target of 1.5 million new homes by 2031.

Much of the attention has focused on proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act (“RTA”). According to the government, these reforms are intended to address persistent delays at the Landlord and Tenant Board (“LTB”), reduce systemic inefficiencies, and encourage greater rental housing supply. They also reflect long-standing calls from housing stakeholders to modernize a system that has struggled to keep pace with Ontario’s rental demand pressures.

The “Security of Tenure” Debate

Few elements of Bill 60 have sparked as much discussion as the government’s early proposal to revisit Ontario’s principle of “security of tenure”, a principle enshrined within the RTA.

Under the current system, a tenant’s right to remain in their home endures as long as they comply with their lease and the RTA. So, when a fixed-term lease expires, it automatically converts into a month-to-month tenancy, reflecting what is commonly referred to as Ontario’s “evergreen” lease framework.

Bill 60 initially proposed consulting on alternatives to this framework, potentially granting landlords greater discretion over who occupies their units and for how long. The government framed this as a measure to introduce flexibility and possibly unlock additional rental stock. However, after substantial pushback from tenant advocacy groups and opposition parties, the government announced that they would not proceed with consultations on this issue before the Bill’s second reading.

The introduction of an end to the evergreen framework would have achieved the goal of making tenant evictions easier – rather than have to demonstrate a failure to pay rent, a landlord could simply wait out the Lease – following which no contestable evidence would have been required. However, the change would have generated (and did generate) tremendous angst among tenants who abide by the rules that they would soon be able to be removed from their homes at their next lease anniversary. Such a move would have created far broader authority for Landlords than is needed to tighten processes at the Board.

Unlocking Vacant Units

Despite that reversal, the government has emphasized the need to stimulate the addition of new rental units in the rental market. As Ontario’s Attorney General Doug Downey stated when introducing the Bill, “There are a lot of landlords that are not putting their units on the market. We need to get those units.” He estimated that, if the right balance is achieved, Bill 60 could help unlock tens or even hundreds of thousands of rental units.

Here the government is in the right – an empty unit helps no one and Landlord’s ought not be holding them vacant. However, whether Bill 60 will strike the right balance between tenant protection and landlord confidence remains to be seen as the Bill proceeds to its second reading.

Key Proposed Changes

Below is a summary of Bill 60’s key proposed changes and what residential landlords and housing industry stakeholders should know as they react to these developments:

1. Streamlining Hearings

   The RTA would be amended to remove tenants’ ability to raise new issues at a rent arrears hearing. If tenants wish to introduce new matters, they must first pay at least 50% of the arrears identified in the landlord’s application. The government says these changes will help reduce last-minute adjournments, particularly in situations where issues such as maintenance or harassment are raised last minute in rent arrears hearings.

2. Increasing Decision Finality

   The Bill would narrow the LTB’s ability to review its own final decisions, restricting re-hearings to limited grounds set out in regulation. The deadline to request a review would shrink from 30 days to 15 days, with discretion to extend only in exceptional circumstances. The government suggests these measures will result in faster dispute resolution and reduce financial hardships for both landlords and tenants.

3. Clarifying Late Payment Rules

   The Bill would introduce a regulatory definition of “persistent late payment.” The government claims that a clearer definition will promote consistency and fairness in cases of repeated delinquency. Whether “persistent” will mean weeks or months of late payments will depend on forthcoming regulations.

4. Adjusting Eviction Procedures

   For landlords ending a tenancy for their own use, Bill 60 proposes to remove the requirement to offer compensation or an alternative unit when providing 120 days’ notice. Additionally, the notice period that a landlord must give a tenant for rent arrears evictions could also be shortened by seven days, which the government claims will allow LTB applications to proceed sooner.

5. Enhancing Adjudicator Consistency

   Regulations would set out the factors adjudicators must consider when postponing or setting aside eviction orders. The government has indicated it will consult before finalizing these criteria to ensure they balance procedural fairness with efficiency.

6. Improving Enforcement and Transparency

The Ministry plans to add up to eight temporary enforcement staff to address delays and ensure timely enforcement of eviction orders. Tribunals Ontario will also explore publishing more LTB decisions to enhance transparency and clarify how rules are applied in practice. The government claims that this increased access will be another vetting resource available to landlords and tenants before entering into lease agreements.

Conclusion

We have all heard stories of tenants who abuse the system at the expense of landlords who must still pay their mortgages whether their tenants pay or not. That is the source of the loss of confidence the Minister was referring to as he introduced the legislation. However, Bill 60 applies broad changes that impact all tenants, not just the ones who abuse the system. If the government is targeting unscrupulous tenants, then consider a system akin to that of a “vexatious litigant”, rather than reducing the time tenants have to defend themselves. Leaving everything else aside, how many people can get time off for a rental hearing on 7 days notice? Landlord complaints have not revolved so much around the time the tenant has as much as the overall backlog at the Tribunal and the challenge of getting a hearing.  

For now, landlords, tenants, and housing professionals should remain attentive to upcoming consultations and the detailed regulations that will shape how these changes work in practice.

 

Ishmeet Juneja is a Student-at-Law who has graduated from the Lincoln Alexander School of Law.

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As Partner and Head of Affordable & Social Housing at Robins Appleby LLP, John Fox is an Ontario lawyer with more than 30 years’ experience in housing development law. He advises private, public, and non-profit clients on acquisitions, financing, and construction involving below-market housing. Formerly with Toronto Community Housing, he has been featured on CBC Metro Morning, is a regular speaker on housing, has chaired two major non-profit boards, and presently serves on two non-profit real estate advisory boards.

 

At Robins Appleby, we have been providing legal advice for over 70 years to entrepreneurs, businesses, financial institutions, and foreign companies operating in Canada. Located in Toronto's financial district, our firm is trusted by clients to help solve critical, time-sensitive issues. We offer a wide range of legal services including business and transactions, affordable and social housing, litigation and dispute resolution, commercial real estate development, tax law, employment law, and estate planning.