Hamilton mulls taking Ontario to court over Greenbelt land removal

In an effort to quash the Ford government's decision to remove Hamilton land from the Greenbelt, the city is considering turning to the courts. 

On Wednesday, councillors and Mayor Andrea Horwath unanimously voted for staff to seek legal advice about applying for a judicial review. 

"This is a responsible way to determine if there is an option to force the government's hand in terms of reversing their decision for the Greenbelt lands," Horwath told council. 

If the city goes ahead with a review, a divisional court judge would decide whether or not the housing minister made a correct or reasonable decision opening up three former Greenbelt sites in Hamilton for development, said city solicitor Lisa Shields. 

The city would ask the judge to rescind the housing minister's order, Shields said.

Coun. John-Paul Danko put forward the motion but said it's "not a silver bullet" and the city would have to meet an "extremely high bar" to win. 

"But there is new information available to us that gives us several avenues to challenge the process," Danko said. 

He pointed to the damning auditor general's report, followed by the integrity commissioner's report, which led to Housing Minister Steve Clark's resignation from cabinet. Premier Doug Ford also acknowledged publicly the process was flawed. 

Also, the province's own housing task force, the auditor general and the city have all concluded "we don't need to bulldoze a single part of Greenbelt land to meet our housing targets," Danko said. 

Shields said the city will seek a legal opinion externally, and then report to council on next  steps. 

City needs to 'prevent land from being destroyed'

Environmental Defence is already pursuing a judicial review of the province's order that expanded Hamilton's urban boundary in late 2022 by over 5,400 acres (a separate order from the one that removed three Hamilton sites from the Greenbelt). 

But Phil Pothen, environment program manager, warned that the process is "extremely slow," technical and narrow, and wouldn't stop development from proceeding in the meantime. 

Currently, Environmental Defence is in a "procedural wrangling" stage as a number of companies, including developers, want to become part of the case and negotiations are ongoing, Pothen said. 

"Our message to Hamilton council is that they need to use the practical tools at their disposal now to actually prevent this land from being destroyed," Pothen said. 

"Anything that prevents this land from getting developed this month, next month, the next couple of months, that is the path to prevent it from getting destroyed at all."

He advised Hamilton council and staff to delay the approval process and when construction can begin to push development beyond the province's timeline of shovels needing to be in the ground by 2025. 

Hundreds of Hamilton residents are expected to attend a special planning meeting Thursday evening. Councillors will discuss how to proceed with the provincial facilitator, who is leading negotiations between municipalities and developers of the former Greenbelt land.

While the city has said it needs to prepare for the land to be developed, Pothen urged residents to not give up. 

"Until such time this land is actually bulldozed there's every reason to hope and expect the land will be returned to the Greenbelt," he said. "It's not a vision that's completed. It can very easily reversed by the stroke of a pen."