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Ontario Municipal Board


The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) is an independent administrative board, operated as an adjudicative tribunal, in the province of Ontario, Canada. It hears applications and appeals on municipal and planning disputes, as well as other matters specified in provincial legislation. The tribunal has reported to the Ministry of the Attorney General since 2012.

One of the oldest tribunals in the province, the OMB was established in 1906 as the Ontario Railway and Municipal Board "to oversee municipalities’ accounts and to supervise the then rapidly growing rail transportation system between and within municipalities." In so doing, it took over responsibility of these functions from the former Railway Committee of the Executive Council and Office of the Provincial Municipal Auditor. It was amalgamated with the Bureau of Municipal Affairs and given its current name in 1932.

In 2010, under the Adjudicative Tribunals Accountability, Governance and Appointments Act, 2009, the OMB was designated as part of a cluster known as "Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario," which also includes the Assessment Review Board, boards of negotiation under the Expropriations Act, the Conservation Review Board and the Environmental Review Tribunal.

The OMB is constituted under the Ontario Municipal Board Act, which confers "exclusive jurisdiction in all cases and in respect of all matters in which jurisdiction is conferred on it by this Act or by any other general or special Act." Until 2009, its decisions could be appealed by petition to the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, but such petitions have been abolished by the Good Government Act, 2009. Its decisions are now final, subject only to appeals to the Divisional Court on a question of law with that Court's leave.

While the Act declares that the Board "has all the powers of a court of record," the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has held that it is not a superior court, but in pith and substance an administrative body. Appeals to the OMB have been described as "a process requiring the OMB to exercise its public interest mandate," and "on an appeal the Board has the obligation to exercise its independent judgment."


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