In a recent ruling, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss a developer’s constitutional challenge against a 2023 law that reinstated 15 pieces of land to the Greenbelt.
The legislation in question, which countered Premier Doug Ford’s previous initiative to open protected areas for development, faced opposition from Minotar Holdings Inc.’s legal team. They contended that the law infringed upon superior court authority and unwritten constitutional principles.
Following the Appeal Court’s decision released on Friday, it was concluded that the developer’s assertions would disrupt the Constitutional balance and were therefore dismissed.
Minotar Holdings Inc. took legal action against the province in 2017, claiming that their 210-acre land had been wrongly designated within the Greenbelt boundaries.
Although an agreement was reached in 2022 between the developer and the province to remove 37 acres from the protected reserve, this settlement was revoked a year later amidst controversy surrounding Ford’s proposal to develop parts of the Greenbelt.
Subsequent to critical reports from both the auditor general and integrity commissioner highlighting biased treatment towards specific developers, Ford opted to return all 15 parcels of land, including the 37-acre Minotar property, to the Greenbelt.
The law reinstating the land also mandated that any future alterations to the Greenbelt boundaries must be carried out through legislation rather than regulation, a move that Minotar’s lawyer, Paul Fruitman, argued shielded the government from judicial scrutiny.
However, the Appeal Court, in a split 2-1 decision, supported the lower court’s stance that the province’s actions did not encroach upon superior court jurisdiction.
“The legislative changes modify legal rights through substantive law amendments,” the ruling stated. “These do not restrict inherent judicial powers but align with established regulatory practices.”
