Developer launches constitutional challenge of law returning Greenbelt lands
Global News
The Greenbelt Statute Law Amendment Act is the legislation fulfilling Ford's promise to restore Greenbelt protections to 15 parcels of land.
The owner of one of the 15 properties removed from — then returned to — the Greenbelt has launched a constitutional challenge of a law that reversed Premier Doug Ford’s plan to open up the protected land for development.
Lawyers for Minotar Holdings Inc. filed the application Thursday in Ontario’s Divisional Court, arguing that the way the law is written violates “the constitutional principle of the rule of law.”
His government had removed them last year, but scathing auditor general and integrity commissioner reports found the process unfairly favoured certain developers and Ford was forced to reverse course.
Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra has boasted that the law also enhances protection of the Greenbelt “to an unprecedented degree” by requiring any future boundary changes to be done through legislation rather than regulation.
The original Greenbelt Act and subsequent changes have set and amended the protected area’s boundaries through regulation, a process that allows for judicial review of the government’s actions, Minotar lawyer Paul Fruitman said.
This government’s change actually immunizes it from judicial oversight, he charges.
“They’ve taken this step to try to prevent any review of what they’ve done with the Greenbelt,” Paul Fruitman said in an interview. “What makes it, in my view, in my submission, quite egregious is that it’s being done to save their political fortunes.”
Minotar wants the court to judicially review how its land has been treated. The developers have long held that their property in Markham, Ont., was incorrectly included in the Greenbelt in the first place when the protected swath of land was established in 2005.
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