Hamilton, Ont., politicians have voted to investigate the possibility of a formal challenge to the province’s plan seeking removal of 795 hectares from the municipality’s Greenbelt.
Legal staff have been asked to review the feasibility of asking for a judicial review of the Ford government’s decision, including the potential cost to local taxpayers.
The motion came before council on Wednesday arguing that analysis from both the auditor general and the integrity commissioner provide the basis of a fight over Greenbelt development, part of a 10-year Ontario strategy to build 1.5 million homes.
Ward 8 Coun. John Paul Danko who brought the motion forward, in consultation with Mayor Andrea Horwath and Ward 1 Coun. Maureen Wilson, suggested grounds for the decision were not “fair or lawful.”
“You’ve got the premier himself publicly stating that the process was flawed. So that’s on the record,” Danko said.
“The premier saying it in an interview — ‘this process was flawed’ — well, if it was flawed, then it should be reversed.”
City solicitor Lisa Shields told councillors the cost of the action is unknown, but likely would not rival the Red Hill Valley Parkway judicial inquiry, during which costs spiraled over $26 million.
“This is not a judicial inquiry, it would be a judicial review application before the courts, which is somewhat different,” Shields explained.
“Not that I’m saying that it would be cheap, it certainly would have a cost attached to it, but it’s certainly not of the same scale.”
Danko admits the battle won’t be easy and is somewhat tempering the idea as a “silver bullet” due to a “high bar” the review would have to pass in proving the government made an error in law.
“The government makes the laws, so how do you prove that the government of Ontario made an error when they control basically what the laws are?” Danko said.
“But having said that, I think there are some pretty serious grounds to suggest that perhaps this decision in particular wasn’t actually fair or lawful.”
Meantime, the city has moved a Thursday night meeting on changes to the greenbelt to a much larger venue, the Ancaster Fairgrounds on Trinity Road.
A similar meeting last week at the Ancaster Memorial Arts Centre drew hundreds and reached capacity and forced many to stand outside.
The majority of Hamiltonians who opted to step up to the microphone and query staff during the open house generally shared displeasure with the province’s plan,
The public consultation is part of a city initiative outlining what role the city has when provincial land and development facilitators arrive to engage staff and explain how 795 hectares of the Greenbelt will be removed.
Councillors voted to play along “under protest” with the facilitators after the city’s director of planning suggested “community benefits” in the form of enhanced parkland or community facilities could be secured through the negotiations.
Hamilton is the only municipality in the province to officially request the Ford government follow through on 15 recommendations from the Auditor General, including one that Greenbelt lands removed should be returned.
Last week, the province announced an upcoming provincial review of the Greenbelt via the province’s new housing minister.
The process not only could recommend more land be added to the protected area, but it could also see more land removed.
Danko said the Hamilton motion for a judicial review could be “one of the remedies ” the city would ask the court to impose, citing agreement that the process was wrong.
“There’s no reason why … the protections could be put back on and then it rolled into this new process that the government’s talking about,” Danko said.