RENFREW-NIPISSING-PEMBROKE — Member of Parliament (MP) Cheryl Gallant recently introduced legislation Bill C-222 to amend the federal Expropriation Act to allow for compensation to private property owners flooded by federal government policy PLAN 2014.
In the United States private property is protected in the American Constitution, whereas in Canada, landowners’ rights are found in government expropriation law “used to legally take their property,” said MP Gallant’s news release.
“Regulatory, de facto or constructive taking of private property happens when Government uses its statutory powers to regulate or restrict the property rights of an owner, without acquiring title to the land being adversely affected,” the release stated. “The landowner feels the impact of the regulation as if the land has been expropriated.”
On page 42 of the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence Plan 2014, it was concluded an estimated 25 thousand privately owned riparian properties are located on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River upstream of the Moses-Saunders Dam. More than three thousand shoreline property parcels are located below elevation 76.2 meters and could be at risk of flooding on Lake Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence River.
Page 57 states the restoration of more natural water level regimes in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River is not a traditional wetland restoration project, which typically includes harvesting and planting, physical transformations of the wetlands, or cleanup of pollutants. Nonetheless, as the United States Environmental Protection Agency noted, “Plan 2014 will increase the diversity and functioning of 64 thousand acres of coastal wetlands by allowing hydrologic conditions [flooding] to support native wetland plant seed germination and growth.”
MP Gallant’s news release states the Federal Government was fully aware Plan 2014 was intended to flood residential properties and they have obligations, in accordance with the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909. Article VIII states, “interests on either side of the International Boundary which are injured by reason of construction, maintenance and operation of the works shall be given suitable and adequate protection and indemnity as provided by the laws in Canada, or the Constitution and laws in the United States respectively.”
