The Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) promotes positive policy change to ensure a safe and healthy built environment that performs at the highest levels by every measure. This provincial election campaign is a great opportunity to ask party leaders and district candidates questions about issues of interest to OAA members. A lot of these issues affect the province?s economy and the basic needs of Ontarians.
Ahead of election day, the OAA’s Election Issues Paper highlights key architectural issues. Photo by Benson Kua via Flickr Commons.
Discussions with candidates can happen almost anywhere and at any time during a provincial election campaign. Whether you meet with a party representative or candidate at a local candidates? debate, community event or at your front door, keep them on their toes by asking questions about issues that matter to you. The OAA promotes policy improvements in the public interest on many subjects. Its Policy Advocacy Coordination Team (PACT) has highlighted three of these priority areas to raise for possible discussion:
Site Plan Approval
Deep Energy Retrofits
Design Excellence

Site Plan Approval
In October 2013, the OAA released an independent report that demonstrated the cost to the end users (homeowners and businesses) and the economy caused by Ontario?s inefficient Site Plan Approval system. For a 100-unit condominium, the report found the combined impact on new home buyers could be $2,375 per unit per month. Assuming a sixmonth sit...