Definitions and application
 1. (1) In this Regulation, and in any document or provision of a document adopted by reference by this Regulation, “area of natural significance” means any of the following: 1.  An area reserved or set apart as a provincial park or conservation reserve under the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act, 2006. 2.  An area of natural and scientific interest (life science or earth science) identified by the Ministry of Natural Resources as having provincial significance. 3.  A wetland identified by the Ministry of Natural Resources as having provincial significance. 4.  An area designated by a municipality in its official plan as environmentally significant, however expressed, including designations of areas as environmentally sensitive, as being of environmental concern and as being ecologically significant. 5.  An area designated as an escarpment natural area or an escarpment protection area by the Niagara Escarpment Plan under the Niagara Escarpment Planning and Development Act. 6.  An area identified by the Ministry of Natural Resources as significant habitat of a threatened or endangered species. 7.  An area which is habitat of a species that is classified under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, 2007 as a threatened or endangered species. 8.  Property within an area designated as a natural core area or natural linkage area within the area to which the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan under the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, 2001 applies. 9.  An area set apart as a wilderness area under the Wilderness Areas Act; “areas of potential environmental concern” means the area on, in or under a phase one property where one or more contaminants are potentially present, as determined through the phase one environmental site assessment, including through, (a)  identification of past or present uses on, in or under the phase one property, and (b)  identification of potentially contaminating activity; “associated product” means any product of petroleum or any other liquid product used as a fuel, other than gasoline, wax and asphalt; “building code” means Ontario Regulation 332/12 (Building Code) made under the Building Code Act, 1992; “bulk liquid dispensing facility” means premises at which solvents, gasoline or associated products are stored in one or more storage tanks and dispensed for sale; “Cleanup Guideline 1996” means the Ministry publication entitled “Guideline for Use at Contaminated Sites in Ontario” originally dated June 1996 and later revised; “contaminants of concern” means, (a)  one or more contaminants found on, in or under a property at a concentration that exceeds the applicable site condition standards for the property, or (b)  one or more contaminants found on, in or under a property for which no applicable site condition standard is prescribed under Part IX (Site Condition Standards and Risk Assessment) and which are associated with potentially contaminating activity; “description”, in reference to a description approved by the Surveyor General, means a plan of survey prepared, signed and sealed by a surveyor or a descriptive map of a property; “dry cleaning equipment” means dry cleaning equipment as defined in Ontario Regulation 323/94 made under the Act; “excess soil” has the same meaning as in Ontario Regulation 406/19 (On-Site and Excess Soil Management) made under the Act; “Excess Soil Standards” means the document entitled “Part II:  Excess Soil Quality Standards”, published by the Ministry and dated November 19, 2019, available on a website of the Government of Ontario as Part II of the document entitled “Rules for Soil Management and Excess Soil Quality Standards”; “garage” means a place or premises where motor vehicles are received for maintenance or repairs for compensation; “gasoline” means a product of petroleum that may include oxygenates and gasoline additives that has a flash point below 37.8°C, that is a liquid at standard temperature and pressure and that is designed for use in an engine; “gasoline outlet” means any premises to which the public is invited, at which gasoline or an associated product is sold and is put into the fuel tanks of motor vehicles or floating motorized watercraft, or into portable containers; “lawyer” means a person authorized under the Law Society Act to practise law in Ontario; “medium” means soil, ground water or sediment; “phase one property” means the property that is the subject of a phase one environmental site assessment; “phase one study area” means the area that includes a phase one property, any other property that is located, wholly or partly, within 250 metres from the nearest point on a boundary of the phase one property and any property that the qualified person determines should be included as a part of the phase one study area under clause 3 (1) (a) of Schedule D; “phase two property” means the property that is the subject of a phase two environmental site assessment; “potentially contaminating activity” means a use or activity set out in Column A of Table 2 of Schedule D that is occurring or has occurred in a phase one study area; “RA property” means a property that is the subject of a risk assessment; “road” means the part of a common or public highway, street, avenue, parkway, square, place, bridge, viaduct or trestle that is improved, designed or ordinarily used for regular traffic and includes the shoulder; “rock” means a naturally occurring aggregation of one or more naturally occurring minerals that is 2 millimetres or larger in size or that does not pass the US #10 sieve; “RSC property”, in relation to a record of site condition, means the property in respect of which the record of site condition is submitted for filing or is filed; “sediment” means the soil, to a maximum depth of 0.15 metres, located at the base of a water body; “sewage treatment facility” means that part of a sewage works as defined in the Ontario Water Resources Act that treats or disposes of sewage but does not include the part of the sewage works that collects or transmits sewage; “site condition standards” means the full depth background site condition standards, full depth generic site condition standards and stratified site condition standards; “soil” means, except for the purposes of shallow soil property as defined in section 43.1, unconsolidated naturally occurring mineral particles and other naturally occurring material resulting from the natural breakdown of rock or organic matter by physical, chemical or biological processes that are smaller than 2 millimetres in size or that pass the US #10 sieve; “Soil, Ground Water and Sediment Standards” means the “Soil, Ground Water and Sediment Standards for Use under Part XV.1 of the Environmental Protection Act” published by the Ministry and dated April 15, 2011; “solvent” means any volatile organic compound that is used as a cleaning agent, diluent, dissolver, thinner, or viscosity reducer, or for a similar purpose; “subsurface soil” means soil that is more than 1.5 metres beneath the soil surface, including the bottom .5 metres of any non-soil surface treatment such as asphalt, concrete or aggregate above the soil surface, but excluding the thickness of any such non-soil surface treatment that is greater than .5 metres; “surface soil” means soil that is no more than 1.5 metres beneath the soil surface, including the bottom .5 metres of any non-soil surface treatment such as asphalt, concrete or aggregate above the soil surface, but excluding the thickness of any such non-soil surface treatment that is greater than .5 metres; “surveyor” means a person licensed under the Surveyors Act to practice cadastral surveying in Ontario; “transition notice” means the notice referred to in paragraph 2 of subsection 168.4 (6) of the Act; “waste disposal site”, as used in this Regulation, means a waste disposal site as defined in section 25 of the Act; “water body” means a permanent stream, river or similar watercourse or a pond or lake, but does not include a pond constructed on the property for the purpose of controlling surface water drainage; “water treatment facility” means, in respect of a drinking water system that is a large municipal residential system or a small municipal residential system as defined in subsection 1 (1) of Ontario Regulation 170/03 made under the Safe Drinking Water Act, 2002, a facility that is used in relation to the treatment of water and includes any equipment related to the management of residue from the treatment process or the management of a substance into the natural environment from the system.  O. Reg. 153/04, s. 1 (1); O. Reg. 366/05, s. 1; O. Reg. 511/09, s. 1 (1-3), (5, 6); O. Reg. 179/11, s. 1 (1); O. Reg. 407/19, s. 1 (1, 2). (2) For the purposes of this Regulation, the following are the types of property uses: 1.  Agricultural or other use. 2.  Commercial use. 3.  Community use. 4.  Industrial use. 5.  Institutional use. 6.  Parkland use. 7.  Residential use.  O. Reg. 153/04, s. 1 (2). (3) In this Regulation, in relation to a use of property, “agricultural or other use” means, (a)  the use of land, or a building on the property for an agricultural purpose, including, but not limited to, animal husbandry, aquaculture, beekeeping, dairying, field crops, forestry, fruit farming, horticulture, market gardening, poultry raising and the operation of glass- or plastic-covered greenhouses, or (b)  any other use of land or a building on the property, other than a commercial use, community use, industrial use, institutional use, parkland use or residential use; “commercial use” means any use of land or a building on the property for an enterprise or activity involving the exchange of goods or services, including the following uses: 1.  Use as a hotel, motel, hostel or similar accommodation. 2.  Use as an office building. 3.  In respect of the classification of occupancies in Table 3.1.2.1. of Division B of the building code, use that falls within, i.  Group D, business and personal services occupancies, or ii.  Group E, mercantile occupancies; “community use” means any of the following uses: 1.  Use of land on the property for a road. 2.  Use of a building on the property for, i.  indoor recreational activities, ii.  travel purposes, such as a railway station or an airport passenger terminal, or like purposes, or iii.  an indoor gathering of people for civic or social purposes. 3.  In respect of the classification of occupancies in Table 3.1.2.1. of Division B of the building code, use of a building on the property that falls within, i.  Group A, Division 1, assembly occupancies intended for the production and viewing of the performing arts, ii.  Group A, Division 3, assembly occupancies of the arena type, or iii.  Group A, Division 4, assembly occupancies in which occupants are gathered in the open air and that is used for a stadium. 4.  Use of a classroom in a building on the property by, i.  a university that is authorized to operate pursuant to section 3 of the Post-secondary Education Choice and Excellence Act, 2000, ii.  a college established under the Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Act, 2002, iii.  any institution, other than an institution mentioned in subparagraph i or ii, with authority to grant a degree or part of a degree under the Post-secondary Education Choice and Excellence Act, 2000, iv.  a private career college as defined and approved under the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005; Note: On January 1, 2024, the day section 1 of Schedule 29 to the Less Red Tape, Stronger Economy Act, 2023 comes into force, subparagraph 4 iv of the definition of “community use” in subsection 1 (3) of the Regulation is revoked and the following substituted: (See: O. Reg. 362/23, s. 1 (1)) iv.  a career college as defined and approved under the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005; “industrial use” means any of the following uses of land or of a building on the property: 1.  Use for an enterprise or activity involving assembling, fabricating, manufacturing, processing, producing, storing, warehousing or distributing goods or raw materials. 2.  In respect of the classification of occupancies in Table 3.1.2.1. of Division B of the building code, use that falls within, i.  Group F, Division 1, high hazard industrial occupancies, ii.  Group F, Division 2, medium hazard industrial occupancies, or iii.  Group F, Division 3, low hazard industrial occupancies. 3.  Use for research or development in association with an enterprise or activity described in paragraph 1. 4.  Use for the transportation of goods or people by railway or by airplane, but not including use for a gathering of people for travel purposes, such as use as a railway station or an airport passenger terminal. 5.  Use as a waste disposal site as defined in section 25 of the Act, except a site for organic soil conditioning as defined in Regulation 347 of the Revised Regulations of Ontario, 1990 made under the Act. 6.  Use in connection with sewage works described in subsection 53 (6.1) of the Ontario Water Resources Act. 7.  Use for the production of oil or gas, or for mining or quarrying. 8.  Use in connection with a water treatment facility. 9.  Use in connection with a sewage treatment facility. 10.  Use for the generation or transformation of electricity. 11.  Use for the storage, maintenance, fuelling or repair of equipment, vehicles or material used to maintain transportation systems. 12.  Use as a salvage yard, including an automobile wrecking yard or premises; 13.  Use of a building where both of the following circumstances apply: i.  The building was previously used for an industrial use, commercial use or community use. ii.  The building is used for the cultivation, growing and harvesting of agricultural commodities, where the cultivation and growing of the agricultural commodities is achieved through hydroponics or other methods that do not rely on cultivating and growing the commodities using the soil from the property; “institutional use” means any of the following uses: 1.  Use of land or a building on the property as a child care centre within the meaning of the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014. 2.  Use of land or a building on the property as a school as defined in the Education Act. 3.  Use of land or a building on the property as a private school as defined in the Education Act. 4.  Use of a building on the property for an indoor gathering of people for religious purposes; “parkland use” means the use of land or a building on the property for, (a)  outdoor recreational activities, including use for a playground or a playing field, (b)  a day camp, an overnight camp or an overnight camping facility, (c)  an outdoor gathering of people for civic or social purposes, or (d)  in respect of the classification of occupancies in Table 3.1.2.1. of Division B of the building code, use that falls within Group A, Division 4, assembly occupancies in which occupants are gathered in the open air other than use for a stadium; “residential use” means any of the following uses of land or a building on the property: 1.  Use as a home or mobile home, or as a residence not otherwise described in this definition, but not including use as a hotel, motel, hostel or similar accommodation. 2.  In respect of the classification of occupancies in Table 3.1.2.1. of Division B of the building code, use that falls within, i.  Group B, Division 1, detention occupancies, ii.  Group B, Division 2, care and treatment occupancies, or iii.  Group B, Division 3, care occupancies. 3.  Use as a health care facility as defined in Ontario Regulation 170/03 made under the Safe Drinking Water Act, 2002. 4.  Use as a place of custody or detention for the purposes of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (Canada) or a correctional institution established or continued under section 14 of the Ministry of Correctional Services Act, whether the institution is operated or maintained by the Crown or any other person. 5.  Use as a penitentiary as defined in the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (Canada) or as a prison as defined in the Prisons and Reformatories Act (Canada). 6.  Use as a residence associated with any of the following: i.  A university that is authorized to operate pursuant to section 3 of the Post-secondary Education Choice and Excellence Act, 2000. ii.  A college established under the Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Act, 2002. iii.  Any other institution with authority to grant a degree or part of a degree under the Post-secondary Education Choice and Excellence Act, 2000. iv.  A private career college as defined and approved under the Private Career Colleges Act. O. Reg. 153/04, s. 1 (3); O. Reg. 511/09, s. 1 (7, 10, 11, 13); O. Reg. 179/11, s. 1 (2, 3); O. Reg. 333/13, s. 1; O. Reg. 407/19, s. 1 (3-9). Note: On January 1, 2024, the day section 1 of Schedule 29 to the Less Red Tape, Stronger Economy Act, 2023 comes into force, subparagraph 6 iv of the definition of “residential use” in subsection 1 (3) of the Regulation is revoked and the following substituted: (See: O. Reg. 362/23, s. 1 (2)) iv.  a career college as defined and approved under the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005.