Environmental advocates take Ontario to court over Hamilton boundary changes

The Ontario government is being taken to court for its decision to alter Hamilton’s urban boundary.

A notice of application was filed in early December by law charity Ecojustice, on behalf of advocacy group Environmental Defence.

In the notice, Ecojustice argues the government’s changes to the City of Hamilton are “unlawful” and requests the 2,200 hectare expansion of the city’s boundaries be quashed.

“This is a major change to the urban fabric of Hamilton,” lawyer Laura Bowman told CTV News Toronto.

“It has significant servicing implications in terms of costs to municipal taxpayers, and this was all done without providing a public explanation for why.”

• Download our app to get local alerts on your device
• Get the latest local updates right to your inbox

In October, as part of its plan to build 1.5 million homes in the next decade, the Ontario government assigned most major municipalities housing targets to meet by 2031.

The majority of those cities were in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, including Hamilton who was told it needed to create 47,000 new homes.

A month later, the Ontario government made 77 modifications to Hamilton’s Urban Official Plan and 25 further modifications to its Rural Official Plan. The changes, the government said, were to help the municipality achieve housing goals and keep up with population growth.

However, Bowman told CTV News Toronto the city was confident they could accommodate any further housing developments within their existing boundaries. Instead, they are being asked to expand into farmland and wild spaces.

“The urban boundary expansion decision is very significant. It's a very large area of land, it includes areas that were formerly protected as Greenbelt lands, and which there were no previous plans to develop," she said.

Bowman also argues the government has not publicly provided a reasonable justification for the boundary changes.

It could take between six months and a year for the application to go through the courts, Bowman says.

"We hope that the courts will agree with us that (Housing Minister Steve) Clark's decision was unreasonable because he did not address the legal requirements under the Planning Act to consider those policy implications."

In the provincial notice of the boundary changes, the province says they received more than 100 “comments” during the public consultation stage. The vast majority supported a “firm urban boundary” or an expansion “with a varying quantum and location.”

“All comments reviewed were taken into consideration prior to a decision being made,” the decision reads. No amendments were made.

In an emailed statement to CTV News Toronto, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing said Hamilton’s population is expected to grow to more than 800,000 people by 2051.

“That is why, after careful consideration, the Minister took the necessary action to accommodate this growth and allow for more desperately needed housing to be built,” the statement reads.

“As this matter is before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment further.” 

Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath told CTV News Toronto she does not believe the boundary expansion is “the right move for Hamilton.”

“We don’t agree that our urban boundary needs to expand,” she said. “At this moment in time as we speak, there's some 34,000 units that are in the hopper to be built here in the City of Hamilton. That's about an 11 and a half year supply of housing.”

“This idea that we need to expand our urban boundary, it just doesn't ring true.”

According to Horwath, there is no legal recourse the city can take itself to overturn the decision. Instead, she says the city has made it clear to the province the premier should reconsider the changes.

Four parcels of land within Greenbelt in Hamilton were earmarked for development in December as part of the province’s plan to build 50,000 new homes on the previously-protected parcels.

In addition to the court case, Environmental Defence has also complained to Ontario Provincial Police, requesting they investigate whether developers were tipped off ahead of the PC Party’s decision to carve up the Greenbelt.

CTV News Toronto learned last week that police were looking into the complaints.

There are also requests in to Ontario’s auditor general and integrity commissioner. Both offices have said the requests are still under consideration or review.