Scott Reid Urges Support for Property Rights

Local MP Scott Reid today stood in the House of Commons to call on Parliamentarians to support adding a property rights guarantee to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for Ontario’s landowners.

The text of Mr. Reid’s speech follows:

Under Ontario’s Expropriations Act, if the province takes away your land, it must provide full, just and timely compensation. The province must, among other things, pay the market value of the land, plus moving costs, etc.

But if the government imposes new restrictions on your use of the land, or requires you to engage in large expenditures in order to continue using your land in the same manner you always have, you get no compensation—even if compliance with the new law ruins you.

 That’s why MPP Randy Hillier and I have introduced identical resolutions in the Commons and at Queen’s Park, to extend these compensation rules to all actions of the Ontario government that devalue property by depriving landowners of the full use and enjoyment of their land.

If passed in both places, this resolution would add property rights for Ontarians to Canada’s Charter of Rights. It would ensure that when new rules are adopted, which are intended to benefit everyone, the costs will be borne by all taxpayers, and not just by the unfortunate landowners whose rights to use or enjoy their property have been restricted.

Earlier this year, Mr. Reid and MPP Randy Hillier, his provincial colleague put forward identical resolutions in their respective legislatures to add a property rights guarantee to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for Ontario. Unlike a constitutional amendment that would apply nationwide, a province-specific amendment to Canada’s constitution only requires that the Federal Parliament and the Provincial Legislature in question vote to pass identical motions for it to become law. Canada’s constitution contains no provision protecting citizens, in any province, against financially ruinous, uncompensated, restrictions on the use of their property. This leaves Ontario residents with no constitutional protection from seizure of property or unjust treatment. The Canadian Bill of Rights, 1960, makes explicit mention of the right of the individual to life, liberty, security of the person and enjoyment of property, and the right not to be deprived thereof except by due process of law, but the Bill of Rights is a federal statute, not binding upon any province. By adding this amendment to the Canadian Constitution, the province of Ontario would be legally bound to respect the rights of property owners, and offer compensation for actions that would deprive landowners from the title, use, or enjoyment of all or part of their land.

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For further information contact:

Phil Joannou
Communications Assistant to Scott Reid, MP
613-947-2277

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