| Apr 07, 2011


Photo: Scott Reid and Randy Hillier at Oso Hall

MP Scott Reid and MPP Randy Hiller put in a few personal platform plugs recently while attending the Provincial Progressive Conservative Association’s Annual General Meeting at Oso Hall on March 31. Reid said he is looking forward to the upcoming all-candidates’ debate in Kaladar on April 11. “I'd like to make a pitch here to get as many local people as possible out to the debates and participate, and not be shy about asking questions, especially questions that are not in the news.”

Asked what he anticipated those issues to be, Reid replied, “Likely rural issues - agriculture related and land use, but also national issues as well, like the economy. Often it is the issues raised that are not in the news which can tend to generate the most interesting discussions.”

Randy Hillier weighed in on a proposed property rights amendment to the constitution that he and Scott Reid have been working on. The amendment was introduced in Queens Park and the House of Commons in February and aims to amend the Constitution of Canada with respect to Ontario. It is the first time a constitutional amendment has been put forward in this fashion for Ontario. The amendment stipulates that if the provincial government or any of its agencies, including municipal governments, passes legislation that deprives landowners of their personal private real estate property values, the government would be required to pay full, fair and timely compensation for its market value.

“So, for example, if an endangered species is found on a landowner’s property, preventing the landowner from building or developing it and essentially making it worthless, then the government would have to provide compensation. In this province we have about 50 different land use designations which infringe on a landowner’s use - things like “an area of natural and scientific importance; significant wetlands; and many more that people might be compensated for,” Hillier said.

Hillier cited the example of a person on Highway 7 near Peterborough who owns three building lots that he wanted to give to his children to build homes. All three border a creek. “The conservation authority told him he could not build 200 metres from the creek and the MTO told him they might in the future be widening the highway so he could not build 200 metres from the front of the property either. Well, with those restrictions there was no property left. And that essentially is a theft of the value of his land, land that he has been paying taxes on for years.”

Asked if the amendment might be an expensive undertaking for the government, Hillier replied, “It is the same situation when the government expropriates personal property for the building of roads or airports …they have to buy it from you; they cannot just take it.”

Hillier then cited the case of a woman in Lanark who owns a 200-acre parcel of land on which was found a logger head shrike. “She lost the use of her land because of the logger head shrike designation which prevents development within a 400 metre radius.”

As far as the protection of the shrike Hillier stated, “It's important that we protect that bird but that is the public's responsibility, not the private individual’s responsibility. What this amendment will do first off is cause the provincial government to think a little more before they bring in legislation and to think more about the possible consequences and harm that that legislation might bring if they in the end are responsible for paying for it. The underlying intention is to make government more thoughtful and more respectful.”

Asked how environmental groups are responding to the proposed amendment, Hillier said, “Most groups are in favour and understand that we are approaching the protection of the environment in the wrong fashion and are really only harming individuals by fining them and preventing them from doing what they want to do with their land. Essentially the approach should be one of benefit rather than punishment and I feel that most environmental groups are in favour of that kind of approach.”

The proposed amendment must be passed in both Queen's Park and the House of Commons before it goes into effect.

 

Support local
independant journalism by becoming a patron of the Frontenac News.