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March
2000 Newsletter
Construction
Threat Recedes
We
reported in the last issue about the Region's threat to
start building the expressway. However, in the wake of a
strong statement on January 13 by federal Environment Canada
Minister David Anderson, Regional Council subsequently backed
down. Mr. Anderson warned the Region that the federal government
would not permit them to begin construction before the completion
of the federal environmental assessment Panel Review.
The
region's lawyer, David Estrin, made an unscheduled appearance
on January 24 before the region's Transportation Services
Committee. Much of his presentation was held behind closed
doors, but Mr. Estrin also made some statements in public
including the following: "The federal court made an order
which has scheduled four days, May 15-18 in Toronto for
the arguments... Now that the court case has been set, its
our recommendation that the best way to get the road built
is to prepare to argue that case in federal court and to
go there in a clear and forthright way. ...now that a court
date has been set it seems to me the region maintain the
high moral ground in this issue by allowing the court to
rule that it's Ottawa that is acting illegally. And we're
confident that will be the result."
The
Transportation Services Committee then recommended:" that
the strategy to begin construction of the north-south extension
of the Lincoln Alexander Parkway be to await the Federal
Court ruling that will follow the Region's Judicial Review
Application in the Federal Court on 2000 May 15-18.
Despite
the bravado and ridiculous claims about maintaining a "high
moral ground", this is clearly a major retreat for the Regional
Council.
It
should also be noted that the likelihood of a May 15 court
date is slim to none because of a series of delays being
imposed on the process by the Region's legal team, including
a decision to appeal the December court decisions that threw
out more than 75% of the Region's court challenge. An appeal
was heard on February 23, and its decision (not yet delivered)
can also be appealed.
In
addition, the Region launched an entirely new court challenge
in mid-November which the Region wants to be heard at the
same time as the first challenge. Initial challenges to
the scope of this second challenge were heard on March 7.
Obviously no hearings can be held on the actual challenge
until its scope is settled, but even after that task is
completed, there are a string of other legal steps that
must proceed the actual hearings. These include the paragraph-by-paragraph
review of the hundreds of pages of affidavits of the Region.
Friends
of Red Hill made three written applications to bring our
lawyers to speak to the Transportation Services Committee
about the report on planned construction, but continued
to maintain our several year perfect record of never being
allowed to speak to a regional committee.
The
committee ordered the report on November 29 and instructed
that it be presented on January 10. On January 10 it was
revealed that the report was taking longer than expected
and wouldn't be brought to the Committee until February
28. Friends' second request to speak was debated and strongly
opposed by councillors Anderson, Marrone and O'Sullivan,
but a decision was put off until February 28.
On
January 12, Friends hand-delivered a letter asking to speak
at the January 24 meeting. That letter didn't even make
the agenda of the January 24 meeting, where the councillors
were told the report won't appear before May. This decision
was obviously taken by someone other than the Council committee
which ordered the report in the first place. To keep up
appearances, the Committee continues to hold meetings and
does discuss expressway-related issues, but it clearly is
not in charge of making decisions.
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