Year-Round Housing On Private Roads and Permitting Consistency

On April 3, 2025 I questioned Minister Steven Myers about the lack of logic and enforcement regarding the ban on year-round homes and ADUs on private roads, noting that illegal development is rampant while rule-abiding constituents are penalized. The Minister agreed the regulations don’t make sense – admitting he lives on a private road himself – and committed to pursuing changes, though he cautioned this could increase pressure for government road maintenance. When I asked how he would fix the inconsistent enforcement that currently relies on “asking forgiveness,” he stated the department is looking to implement an AI pilot program to remove human bias and streamline the permitting process.

B. Trivers: Well, Mr. Speaker, I have some questions for the Minister of Housing, Land and Communities.

Speaker: Of course you do.

B. Trivers: Section 6(1) of the PEI Planning Act, subdivision and development regulations, clearly states that no development for any year-round use shall be permitted on a lot or parcel served by a private road.

Planning Act regulations

Question to the minister: Are you aware that it is illegal to build year-round homes on private roads here on PEI? Can you explain to me how this makes any sense?

Speaker: The hon. Minister of Housing, Land and Communities.

Hon. S. Myers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know how this makes any sense. I believe that there are all kinds of roads around where I live that have permanent residents on it, including my own home, which I got approved to build there in 2018.

I would also say that the neighbouring subdivision to mine is identical. It’s a private road. It’s owned by the residents of the community. I think there are seven homes in there now. There was one when I moved down there in 2018. There’s rapid development just in the area that I live in.

It doesn’t make sense that people are being told no, I guess, but I’m sure that you have more to share with me.

Hon. S. Myers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker: The hon. Member from Rustico-Emerald.

B. Trivers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It puzzles me as well because we’ve seen lots of development on private roads.

It came to my attention that this regulation also applies to accessory dwelling units that were brought in, a crucial part of addressing housing shortages and providing more options for families. My constituents were denied their application to build an ADU in-law suite on a property on a private road because of that regulation. This regulation defies common sense and needs to be changed.

A question to the minister: Will you commit here today to changing this regulation to allow year-round residences and ADUs on private roads?

Speaker: The hon. Minister of Housing, Land and Communities.

Hon. S. Myers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yeah, I’ll go back and do the work that I need to do to bring that forward. I do want to caution people though because I know what immediately comes after this, and it’s going to fall to the Minister of Transportation, who’s probably going to give me a slap when I sit down. But then the pressure is on him; then they’re looking to have their road taken care of by a plow.

Any of the rural MLAs know this. You’ve had a lot of pressure from people to get their road plowed that’s on a private road or isn’t up to the grade that government can actually run the gear down, particularly in the spring of the year when you might get snow, like a day like today. Some of the roads have too soft of a base to run machinery down.

With the caveat: you can build there, but I’m not sure how much more government will offer you as far as services go. But I’ll go back and start that work.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker: The hon. Member from Rustico-Emerald.

B. Trivers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Transportation and road issues aside, we all know in here that year-round homes have been built on private roads for many years on PEI. We can all point to whole subdivisions of year-round homes on private roads.

But how has this been possible with regulation 6(1) in place? It’s illegal, isn’t it? When I inquired about this issue to the minister’s department, I was floored with the response:

“The development permit does state that year-round homes are not permitted, but the owner doesn’t pay attention to that and builds their home and lives in it year-round.”

That was the explanation. It seems that a development permit isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. This is very concerning and has completely eroded public confidence in the permitting process. No wonder there’s a culture of asking forgiveness instead of permission when it comes to land development on our Island.

A question to the minister: Assuming we fix these ridiculous regulations like the ones restricting year-round housing on private roads, what are you doing to ensure that your department applies and enforces all regulations consistently and transparently?

Speaker: The hon. Minister of Housing, Land and Communities.

Hon. S. Myers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That’s a very good question, and part of what the Speech from the Throne announced was the AI pilot that we’re looking at.

I will say that, from an AI perspective, it takes the human element out of it. I’ve seen a pilot of what Burlington is doing with AI for building permits, for example: you get your answer within five minutes, it’s machine-read, and whenever you get your denial, it’ll have where you missed, and you can either go back and try to fix it or go and meet with a person to work it out. What they said in some cases is where it made sense, they would still approve it based on what might be wrong with the actual application.

So, I think that’s going to take a lot of that out of there, when we have AI which is going to only read what’s put into the machine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.