Supreme Court of Canada Grants Intervenor Status to Ontario Landowners Association
- 2021-11-01
- By admin
- Posted in Latest News
Annapolis Group Inc. v. Halifax Regional Municipality
October 22, 2021.
If the government makes a regulatory decision that infringes on your private property rights for a public benefit, while purposefully avoiding an obligation to pay you compensation, then you should be entitled to compensation – right? According to the current state of the law on de facto expropriation, a legal doctrine designed to protect private property owners’ rights in those very circumstances, the answer may be “not necessarily.” Luckily, on October 15, 2021, the Ontario Landowners’ Association (“OLA”) was granted leave to intervene in the Supreme Court of Canada case in Annapolis Group Inc. v. Halifax Regional Municipality (“Annapolis”). In this case, the Supreme Court has an opportunity to make it easier for private landowners to obtain compensation when their private property rights have been infringed in this manner, and the OLA will be arguing that the law needs to change.
The appeal in Annapolis involves questions about the legal test private landowners are required to establish when making a claim of de facto expropriation against the government. In the Annapolis case, the private landowner claiming de facto expropriation was a land developer, and the government authority was a municipality that wanted to acquire the developer’s lands for a public park. However, the municipality deliberately avoided zoning the lands as parkland (which would have required it to purchase the lands under municipal legislation), and instead passed a resolution that simply refused to allow the developer to engage in any further development of its land. In the decision under appeal before the Supreme Court, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal held there was no de facto expropriation despite clear motive on behalf of the government to avoid its obligation to pay, on the basis that the government had not actually acquired title to the lands in question. The OLA has been granted leave to make two arguments before the Supreme Court in the appeal of that decision. In short, the OLA will argue that:
- In cases such as this one, where the government exercises its regulatory powers for the purpose of evading a statutory compensation requirement to achieve a public benefit, then a rebuttable presumption should arise that the test for de facto expropriation has been established. This means that the courts should presume in such cases that the private property owner is entitled to compensation for de facto expropriation unless the government can demonstrate that they are not; and
- The Supreme Court should abandon the requirement in its prior jurisprudence that the government must acquire a beneficial interest in the property in order for there to be a de facto expropriation – in these circumstances, a change in the common law is warranted.
“This case is significant in that it may potentially result in a formulation of the test for government expropriation of Private Land that is more generous toward the Landowner”, said Jeff Bogaerts, President of the OLA. “Government regulatory expropriation of Private Land must be compensated. Leaving the Landowner in a position of owning the land but being unable to use it is unfair and presents a financial burden.”
The OLA is incredibly excited about the opportunity to contribute to the law on this very important topic, particularly because the issues at stake, and the Court’s ultimate decision, are squarely within the OLA’s mission and mandate, and directly affects private landowners across the country.
Jeff D. Bogaerts
President, Ontario Landowners Association
Search:
Categories
Archives
- April 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- June 2013
- April 2013
- October 2012
- May 2012
- September 2011