Drainage petition invalid; Engineer erred by using property boundaries to define area requiring drainage.
The applicant challenged the validity of a petition for a municipal drain and the resulting Engineer's Report.
The Engineer had defined the 'area requiring drainage' based on property boundaries and the presence of systematic tile drainage, excluding the applicant's farm because it theoretically had riparian access to a creek.
The Acting Drainage Referee held that the Engineer erred in law.
Property boundaries are not relevant to determining an area requiring drainage under section 4 of the Drainage Act, and the applicant's theoretical riparian access was not reasonably feasible.
The petition was declared invalid, the Engineer's Report was set aside, and the provisional by-law was quashed.
ODROntario Court of the Drainage RefereeMay 27, 2025
