We are writing to provide an update further to our memo dated January 29, 2021 where we indicated that we would be continuing our focus on a “digital first” approach to the delivery of notices.
In that memo, we called on municipalities to engage with us to discuss reducing our paper footprint. Our memo said:
“As we continue to look forward, the ARB is interested in further reducing our paper footprint. The ARB is currently researching ways to eliminate the paper notice to the municipalities by creating a data file that can be sent electronically. We are still in the early stages of this research however we will soon be reaching out to the municipalities to gather more information.
If you are interested in having an “early thinking” discussion with the Registrar, please contact the Board at ARB.Registrar@ontario.ca.”
Over the last several months, the ARB has been working with the cities of Toronto and North Bay to develop a platform through which all Notices of Hearing have been sent by email. Those data files, which Toronto and North Bay have been able to download as Excel spreadsheet files, have contained the same information that was previously included in paper Notices of Hearing.
The ARB is now expanding this project. Our testing timeframe was from July to September 2021 and will continue. Our expectation is that this new process will be implemented across all 444 Ontario municipalities by January 2022.
The ARB is currently creating a secure web-platform with standard user-names and unique passwords for each municipality. This will ensure that you all have access to your specific regions’ notices in real-time.
Once created, data files will be uploaded to the secure website for all municipalities every Friday and they will include notices that were created for all the ARB’s hearings that week across the province.
We hope to provide a further update in December regarding a launch date.
We are also looking to expand this service in the future to include use by tax representatives and law firms.