‘One Ontario’ aims to streamline development application approvals

The Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Ontario (ACEC-Ontario) is among the supporters for ‘One Ontario,’ a new collaborative initiative that aims to standardize and streamline the development application approval process across the province.

AECO Innovation Lab, an industry consortium focusing on productivity, sustainability and profitability for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sectors, launched One Ontario last June. Since then, stakeholders and supporters have joined the effort to unify data exchange, improve efficiency and transparency throughout the development approvals process and enable data aggregation for future reporting and measurement.

Beyond AECO, key sponsors include the Ontario Building Officials Association (OBOA) and the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON). And beyond ACEC-Ontario, supporters include the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), the Toronto Building Information Modelling (BIM) Community (tBIMc), the Ontario Professional Planners Institute (OPPI), the Ontario Structural Wood Association (OSWA), the Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA), buildingSMART Canada (bSC) and the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario (RCCAO), among others.

Based on research and international best practices, One Ontario will recommend consistent standards for applicants, municipalities and agencies, so as to connect e-permitting and automated application submissions to the rest of the approvals process. It will also provide a framework for the implementation of other practices, such as the establishment of a BIM standard to enable code compliance checking and related applications.

“Ontario has the opportunity to implement a strategic, province-wide solution that serves as an example for the rest of Canada,” says Arash Shahi, AECO’s CEO.