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OTTAWA — A citizens’ group is taking the city to court in an attempt to stop the Terry Fox Drive extension, a four-kilometre, $47.7-million roadway already under construction in northern Kanata.
South March Highlands Carp River Conservation Inc. filed papers in divisional court Friday, requesting a judicial review of the city’s decision to build the roadway, which runs through the ecologically sensitive South March Highlands and part of the Carp River floodplain.
“At a minimum we’ll be asking the court for a declaration that the project is not in compliance with a number of legal requirements and should be halted,” said lawyer Eric Gillespie, who is representing the group with help from the University of Ottawa-Ecojustice legal clinic.
A court date is set for July 13 in Toronto. Gillespie said no court dates were available in Ottawa before August.
“As everyone knows, the construction is already underway, so there is urgency in the minds of people involved in this,” Gillespie said.
The group alleges that the city broke the provincial Environmental Assessment Act by failing to follow the proper procedure before beginning construction.
Although the city relied on an environmental assessment carried out in 2000 to build the road, the group argues that the assessment expired in January, 2010 – five years after its latest update, or “addendum” in 2005, and three months before construction began on the road linking Kanata Lakes to Morgan’s Grant.
The city has said in the past that the environmental assessment did not expire, because some work on a different section of the roadway took place in 2003.
The group also argues that there have been several substantial changes to the project since the 2005 environmental assessment update, including:
- changes to the alignment of Shirley’s Brook, which crosses the road’s right-of-way and feeds into a provincially significant wetland.
- changes to, and new information about, water flows and flooding in the Carp River.
“Since the last environmental assessments were completed, there appear to have been significant modifications and major changes to the environmental setting,” said Gillespie. “Under the governing legislation, that appears to trigger the need for a much more comprehensive look at the project before it goes any further.”
Paul Renaud, a member of the group that launched the court action, said it’s not too late to stop the road.
“The trees will grow back. The forest will recover if we halt this now,” he said.
The construction of the arc-shaped roadway has also given new impetus to a planned suburban housing subdivision inside the arc. Development companies Urbandale and Richcraft are expected to start clear-cutting 20 hectares of mature hardwood forest in July 19. The forest is unique in Ottawa and hosts several rare and endangered species of plants and animals. Many of those opposing the roadway also oppose the housing development, which was approved by the Ontario Municipal Board in 2006.
Renaud said the court action was begun as a last resort.
“We tried everything we could to bring this to the attention of all the authorities involved and get them to reconsider. It’s not that we wanted to engage in legal action. It’s that we were reduced to this,” he said.
If the court orders construction halted, it could put the funding for the project in jeopardy. The project has received approval for $32 million in federal and provincial stimulus money, but the cash is only available for work completed before March 2011.
© Copyright 2010 The Ottawa Citizen