August 4, 2022
The Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition is disappointed, but not surprised the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the City of Ottawa v. ClubLink Corporation ULC leave application. The KGPC thanks the City of Ottawa for their steadfast support to help Save Our Greenspace and remains committed to working with the City to pursue all avenues to stop this unwanted development.
KGPC Chair Barbara Ramsay says “we understand that the City of Ottawa leadership had serious concerns about the impact of the Court of Appeal decision on a plethora of agreements both in place and in progress. They have been very good partners for the KGPC in this fight to preserve urban greenspace and so, today, we’re particularly disappointed for them. However, we continue to engage our legal team in managing a full slate of legal options in this fight and we will now buckle down to ready for our next step, a return to Superior court on September 13 and 14.”
KGPC Lawyer and Partner at Gowling WLG, Alyssa Tomkins adds “the fight is far from over. Though the Supreme Court has refused leave to appeal, the matter is still proceeding before Justice Labrosse. We trust that the remainder of the 40% Agreement will be preserved by the court. The Coalition also has its own application regarding the restrictive covenants that has been launched in parallel. We will be doubling our efforts to ensure that ClubLink is held to its obligations and that Kanata’s beloved greenspace is left intact.”
The City of Ottawa sought Leave to Appeal to the Supreme Court following the November 26, 2021, decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal that said two clauses of the 40% Agreement were invalid because they violated the “rule against perpetuities.” The Court of Appeal decision fell well short of what ClubLink was seeking and did not invalidate the entire 40% Agreement as requested by ClubLink. The Court of Appeal invited the City of Ottawa and ClubLink to discuss what impact the invalid clauses would have on the 40% Agreement, with the issue then going back to Mr. Justice Labrosse. Today’s decision by the SCOC allows that next step to take place.
The KGPC is taking ClubLink to court over two Restrictive Covenants that limit how the land can be used. The first, is a Restrictive Covenant about the preservation of Greenspace due to the 40% Principle. It states that forty percent of the original development area, which includes the golf course and Trillium Woods, remain as greenspace. The second, is a restrictive covenant concerning Stormwater Management that stems from an agreement ClubLink signed when it acquired the Kanata Golf Course lands in November 1996. It specifically restricts the (re)grading of the land and the altering of its inherent Stormwater Management function.
KGPC Chair Barbara Ramsay is available for comment.
The Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition is a not-for-profit corporation, focused on increasing public awareness about the importance of greenspace preservation. Our goal is to raise funds and public support for the City of Ottawa efforts to ensure that the 40% Agreement is enforced.
Links: Save Our Kanata Greenspace: https://ourkanatagreenspace.ca/
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter: @OurKanatasGreen
Contacts: The Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition
Chair Barbara Ramsay 613-725-6595 chair@ourkanatagreenspace.ca
President Geoff McGowan 613-612-2183 geoff@geoff-bobbie.com