Ontario Land Tribunal
Tribunal ontarien de l’aménagement du territoire
ISSUE DATE: October 04, 2024
CASE NO(S).: OLT-23-000723
PROCEEDING COMMENCED UNDER subsection 17(36) of the Planning Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P. 13, as amended
Appellant: Elizabeth Benneian Appellant: The Preservation of Agricultural Lands Society Applicant: Trustees of New Hope Church Niagara Subject: Proposed Official Plan Amendment Reference Number: 22 115593 OP Property Address: 2360 First Street Louth Municipality/UT: St. Catharines/Niagara OLT Case No: OLT-23-000723 OLT Lead Case No: OLT-23-000723 OLT Case Name: Benneian v St. Catharines (City)
PROCEEDING COMMENCED UNDER subsection 34(11) of the Planning Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P. 13, as amended.
Applicant/Appellant: New Hope Church Niagara Subject: Application to amend the Zoning By-law – Refusal or neglect to make a decision Reference Number: 22 115648 ZA Property Address: 2360 First Street Louth Municipality/UT: St. Catharines/Niagara OLT Case No: OLT-23-000918 OLT Lead Case No: OLT-23-000723 OLT Case Name: New Hope Church Niagara v. St. Catharines (City)
Heard: September 23, 2024 by Telephone Conference Call
APPEARANCES:
| Parties | Counsel |
|---|---|
| The Preservation of Agriculture Lands Society (“PALS”) | Lisa Triano |
| Trustees of New Hope Church Niagara (“NHC”) | Tom Hanrahan |
| Regional Municipality of Niagara (“Region”) | Brian Duxbury |
MEMORANDUM OF ORAL DECISION DELIVERED BY KURTIS SMITH ON September 23, 2024 AND ORDER OF THE TRIBUNAL
BACKGROUND
1On September 9, 2024, the Tribunal received correspondence from PALS on behalf of the Parties to request that a telephone conference call (“TCC”) be scheduled to provide sufficient guidance to resolve a dispute that had occurred.
2The Tribunal directed the Parties to provide written submissions of the dispute (two pages maximum) prior to the TCC, scheduled for Monday, September 23, 2024.
THE DISPUTE
3The dispute simply put is: What happens following the receipt of the Agreed Statement of Facts (“ASF”) of the Expert Witnesses?
POSITION of the PARTIES
The Preservation of Agriculture Lands Society
4Ms. Triano, counsel for PALS, reviewed paragraph 10 of the Procedural Order (“PO”) that states:
Expert witnesses in the same field shall have a meeting on or before July 24, 2024 and use best efforts to try to resolve or reduce the issues for the hearing. Following the experts’ meeting the parties must prepare and file a Statement of Agreed Facts and Issues with the OLT case co-ordinator on or before October 1, 2024.
5She explained that she read it “at face value” and was of the understanding that following receipt of the ASF from the experts, Counsel for the Parties would revise, prepare and submit the ASF to the Tribunal. Ms. Triano revised the ASF and provided it to the other Parties. The revisions to the ASF as described by Ms. Triano were to align the wording with the planning documents and to ensure that “questions of law” were not removed from the Issues List (“IL”). When asked to clarify what Ms. Triano meant as to the removal of “questions of law”, she communicated that she was referring to issues relating to consistency to the Provincial Policy Statement (“PPS”) and/or conformity to the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (“Growth Plan”).
Trustees of New Hope Church Niagara
6Mr. Hanrahan, counsel for NHC, submitted that the revised ASF as prepared by PALS are “…substantive, and in essence, replace independent witnesses’ opinion evidence on issues with of counsel for one of the parties.”
7He explained typically following receipt of an ASF the Parties may edit the ASF grammatically or for visual formatting. From there the Parties use the ASF and update the IL by deleting issues that were resolved and scoping issues as outlined in the ASF.
8Mr. Hanrahan explained that once he received the ASF, he updated the IL to align with the ASF of the planners.
Regional Municipality of Niagara
9Mr. Duxbury, counsel for the Region, explained that the regular course of action had occurred until the ASF was revised.
10He stated that the experts are knowledgeable and professional, and they agreed to the facts during the experts meeting. He went on to say that agreeing to facts and scoping go hand-in-hand to inform the issues, and counsel should not be touching or “wordsmithing” the ASF.
DIRECTION
11Following the consideration of the written and oral submissions of counsel the Tribunal confirmed that the Parties must submit the ASF to the Tribunal, on or before Tuesday, October 1, 2024.
12The Tribunal confirmed that altering the ASF as signed by the experts, beyond visual formatting or grammatical correction is not permitted as it interferes with the outcome of the meeting of the experts.
13The meeting of the experts is an important step in the process leading up to a merit hearing, it resolves and/or reduces the issues and with any luck will decrease the scheduled hearing time.
14The ASF as signed by the experts shall be submitted to the Tribunal on or before October 1, 2024, and will be used to update the IL. In the event the experts wish to revise the ASF they may do prior to the Tuesday, October 1, 2024 deadline. The Tribunal informed counsel that they shall not provide the experts with PALS revised ASF.
ORDER
15THE TRIBUNAL ORDERS that the Agreed Statement of Facts is to be submitted in accordance to paragraph 10 of the Procedural Order and that it be signed by the expert witnesses.
“Kurtis Smith”
Kurtis Smith Member Ontario Land Tribunal
Website: www.olt.gov.on.ca Telephone: 416-212-6349 Toll Free: 1-866-448-2248
The Conservation Review Board, the Environmental Review Tribunal, the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal and the Mining and Lands Tribunal are amalgamated and continued as the Ontario Land Tribunal (“Tribunal”). Any reference to the preceding tribunals or the former Ontario Municipal Board is deemed to be a reference to the Tribunal.