Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Another year, another Christmas another couple of pounds and another New Years resolution to lose that same few pounds we talk about every year.
The Big Christmas Storm of 2022, it will be talked about for a long time and people will ask, “where were you during the Big Storm?”.
I for one, after shoveling on multiple days, was eating to replace the carbs I burned up pushing snow. I figured I could eat the same and save having to repeat 1 new years Resolution to lose a few Christmas pounds because I already had.
The year of 2022 was a good year for the Ontario Landowners Association and all landowners across Ontario and the rest of Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada released their decision on a case that the OLA was asked to be an Intervenor in.
The Annapolis Group Inc. v. Halifax Regional Municipality was a significant decision for landowners from the perspective of expropriation of private land. The decision, in very simplistic terms, was that government cannot take land from you without compensation. The SCC went further to say that legislative restrictions of land is in effect a type of expropriation without compensation. For a more in-depth review of the case, I am including a link to the SCC.
Supreme Court of Canada – 39594 (scc-csc.ca)
The OLA will continue to look for cases where we can be Intervenors.
We had a successful Spring Directors meeting at the Canadian Legion in Cobourg in April and a successful AGM at the Legion in Cobourg in October. The new facilities at the Canadian Legion in Cobourg are very good.
At the AGM we had some changes to the Executive. Duaine McKinley, a long time Governor, has stepped down. We thank Duaine for his support. Duaine has been a long-time landowner member and has a wealth of knowledge about landowner rights. Duaine was a past Councillor for Augusta Township in Leeds-Grenville and has managed his farm for years. Russ Robson, from the East Gwillimbury area has stepped in to keep our ranks full.
We thank Michelle Walker for her time as our Executive Secretary and we thank Tarren Robson for taking on the role as our new Executive Secretary.
The International Plowing Match at the Kemptville Agricultural College was another success for the OLA. We had volunteers coming from as faraway was Western Ontario.
Overall, the OLA has weathered COVID and the effect it had in postponing our Spring and AGM’s. Going forward into 2023, we have significant projects in the works. We will keep you up to date on how these projects are progressing.
To you, your family, friends, and fellow landowners, I hope you Christmas was most Excellent, and the New Year will bring you Happiness, Wealth, Health, and Wisdom.
Jeff D. Bogaerts