By CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
WHITEWATER REGION — The Ontario Landowners Association is warning residents and business owners that municipal bylaws cannot affect private property.
In order for bylaws to be effective on private property, the owners must enter into an agreement with the municipality.
The Community Improvement Plan that is being implemented in Whitewater Region township, is a prime example, said Donna Burns, president of the Renfrew County chapter of the Ontario Landowners Association (OLA). While the council has agreed to initiate the program in various areas of the municipality, she said unless a property owner enters into an agreement, there is nothing to be done to a private property.
Ms. Burns noted that a municipality is a private corporation created by provincial legislature to create a public service for the inhabitants of a community it serves in exchange for the taxes it receives.
The Municipal Act is a consolidated statute or written law that governs the extent of their powers and duties, the internal organization and the structure of municipalities in Ontario, she continued.
The council creates bylaws for the safety and protection of the public while on public properties, she said. Those properties include arenas, libraries, social housing, parks, garbage dumps, etc.
Section 14 of the Muncipal Act states their bylaws are without effect if in conflict with any provincial or federal legislation or statutory instrument, she said.
“A statutory instrument is a Crown land patent grant,” she said.
A Crown land patent grant was handed from the British Crown to the first settlers who came here, she said.
“It’s sort of like a treaty,” Ms. Burns said. “It’s a statutory instrument that is higher than parliamentary law.”
Property owners apply for the Crown land patent grant through the Ministry of Natural Resources, she said.
“It identifies all the rights that were granted to that first settler,” Ms. Burns said, adding, “The key thing about these Crown land patent grants is when they were first handed out in the 1800s and up to the early 1900s, it said they are the rights reserved to the Crown, the other rights are for the property owner and his heirs and assigns forever.
“That means if you sell your property, that property gets transferred to a new property owner and unless you have sold off any of those rights…giving that right to a municipality, then the next property owner would still have those rights.”
The types of things the Crown reserved were minerals, she said.
Property owners should complete a title search on their properties, Ms. Burns said. A title search shows all the transactions that occurred on that property, she explained. Each transaction is identified by an Instrument Number (filing system).
Going back to the bylaws, Ms. Burns noted that for a private act, which is a municipal bylaw, there are no provisions that can affect a person’s rights. By creating bylaws and trying to enforce them, they are violating a private act, she said.
“These are things people need to be educated on,” Ms. Burns said. “That’s how valuable your private property is. It’s protected.
“The municipality has to, under the Municipal Act, which is their authority, they have to acquire your land before they can exercise their authority on it,” she said.
This is stated in Sections 10 and 11 of the Municipal Act.
“When a municipality wants to purchase land, or get your land, they have to do through purchase, lease or expropriation, and when they get it, it has to be used for public use,” she said.
As for an official plan, it’s a policy that the province demanded municipalities implement as a way to advise how they will use properties within the township, Ms. Burns said. The first official plans were first introduced in this area in 2005. The municipalities were threatened by the province that funding may be withheld if they didn’t implement official plans, she continued.
“An official plan is a policy, it’s not law,” Ms. Burns said. “It’s a strategy proposed by government, a course of action for something.”
Going back to the Community Improvement Plan (CIP), it will be explained at a public meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 6 p.m. in council chambers at the municipal office in Cobden, she said. The CIP is first to be implemented in Cobden, Beachburg, Westmeath, Foresters Falls and Haley Station
These are the settlement areas and by implementing the CIP the municipality will increase its revenues through property taxes.
By offering financial incentives to property owners to fix up the property, they are offering a contract. Once you sign the contract, you are signing away various property rights.
“We’re not trying to tell anybody what to do,” Ms. Burns said. “This is just for your information so you understand all of it.”
When the municipality makes an offer to you, this financial incentive must be registered on title of that property, she continued.
And, Ms. Burns noted this is most important, that under Section 28 of the planning act, the municipality must acquire your land. The CIP agreement could be taken as a lease, because the property owner is entering into an agreement, accepting a financial compensation, and therefore are under their authority to conform to their property standard bylaws.
“This is the legal way they can do it,” Ms. Burns stressed.
She noted that by understanding what the rights of the municipality are, during public meetings, such as the one on Nov. 1, the property owners can know what questions to ask to ensure they know exactly what they are entering into with the municipality.
The grants and loans that may be offered as a financial incentive to fix up properties, could be in the form of a deferred tax relief, she said, adding, but it is only for a short time period for about three years. In the end, your property taxes will increase, which is an investment for the municipality.
“Municipalities are broke,” Ms. Burns said. “The province has no money, therefore the municipalities aren’t getting any money from the province. They have their own struggles as well.”
If a property owner enters into an agreement with a municipality for tax deferment, or receiving a grant to improve your property, means you are giving up your property rights.
“You will be in the same category as the public library, curling rink or the parks and recreation that they do have authority of, you are giving your rights by taking this grant and allowing them to tell you what you can and can’t do on your property, that’s part of the deal,” Ms. Burns said.
Ms. Burns also spoke about building permits and how they affect private property.
“When you take out a building permit, that’s an agreement that you are entering into with the municipality and the province.
Ms. Burns noted that by signing any type of agreement with the municipality, a property owner is giving up certain rights to their property to the municipality. Read all the documentation, and if you don’t agree with it, or want to add to it, do so, she encouraged.
If you fail to comply with the bylaws after you have signed an agreement, any fines can be assigned to your property tax, she said.
Throughout the next hour, Ms. Burns also touched on various other topics, such as the high cost of policing and fire departments; going to court over bylaws that cannot be enforced; elected officials quitting because they are frustrated with how they are treated by the province; how the minimum wage will hurt the economy and the proposed tax hikes on small business and farmers; United Nations Agenda 21, environmental issues.
Ms. Burns encouraged the people to attend a meeting that is being held Thursday, Sept. 28 at the Cobden agricultural hall on the tax increase under discussion by the federal government.
Ms. Burns said people believe there is a conspiracy theory that the province wants to get rid of property owners.
“It’s not a conspiracy, it’s a real threat,” she stressed. “This country is going to be like Venezuela. It was once the fifth richest country in the world.”
It’s now a country filled with poverty and no one owns anything, she said.
“Are we going that way as well,” Ms. Burns questioned. “How are we going to stop this? Agenda 21 will only succeed if we give up our property rights.
“We are a threat as long as we own property.”
People’s rights are slowly being removed and municipal politicians are letting it happen, she said.
“Our municipally elected officials are our voice,” she said. “What happens to us will happen to them.
“They have to start speaking up.”
Ms. Burns noted a municipal election is scheduled for October 2018 and people should vote for the people who are going to look after everyone’s interests.
“Municipalities have a gun to their heads,” she said. “They have entered into agreements. They have a gun to their head like you and me.
“They have to start taking a stand. They are a separate corporation.”
Ms. Burns noted Whitewater Region’s municipal council can start working independently of the county since it is supposed to be serving the residents of Whitewater Region.
Another meeting Ms. Burns encourages residents to attend is the Algonquin land claim meeting in Pembroke on Thursday, Oct. 5 from 4 to 8 p.m. People must become informed of what is happening, she said.
Mrs. Burns said any future meetings of the OLA in Cobden will also be held in the upstairs hall of the Cobden Legion.
“The whole purpose of the landowners is to support the vets,” she said. “If it wasn’t for our veterans we wouldn’t have the rights and freedoms that we have today.”
The OLA is a grassroots volunteer organization created in 2003 whose mandate is to educate property owners that private property is protected by the Crown Land Patent Grant and other historical legislative documents that allow us the freedom to enjoy the use of our land without government interference.
It is vigilant of increasingly new government laws attempting to remove previously granted property rights and regulate land use conditions on private property.
The OLA provides substantial historical research to prove the validation of the information it provides to the public.
This historical research proves that all levels of government do not have civil authority on private land without the written consent of the property owner which must also be registered on the Land Title of said property.”
For more information on the OLA, check out ontariolandowners.ca or check out its facebook page.
