By Pepper Parr
June 29th, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
The wheels of Justice move slowly – not at a glacial pace but there is no rush to judgement – at least not when it is the city and the Burlington Air Park sending their legal warriors into a Court Room to do battle
On April 4th, the Gazette reported that “a member of the city’s legal staff advised council that a Judge at the Court House advised the city that Justice Gibson anticipates he will be in a position to release his decision by April 30th.
April came and went, we got into May and no decision. A new date was set – a decision will be released June 30th
Former city manager Jeff Fielding sharing an opinion with Glenn Grenier on what the Air Park was required to do while city lawyers Blake Hurley and Nancy Shea Nicol look on.
The Air Park and the city have been going at it for some time. The story came to the public’s attention when the Gazette reported in 2013 on the number of trucks that were roaring up and down Appleby Line and leaving a terrible mess on the road and disturbing the peace and quiet of the country side with the clanging of truck tail gates.
Hundreds of tucks were hauling landfill onto the Air Park property without any kind of site plan approval from the city. Residents were unhappy; city hall became livid them they became aware of the scope and scale of what was being done.
Literally hundreds of trucks were taking landfill onto the Air Park property. City hall wasn’t aware of what was going on nor did anyone at the Region know very much.
When it came to the attention of people at city hall they could find no record of any permits being issued. Turns out the Air Park didn’t seek any permits – they had taken the position that the Air Park was federally regulated and they didn’t have to ask the city for permission to do anything.
The city saw it differently and one court case, and an appeal later – Justice Murphy clarified that situation. The Air park is subject to city regulation.
The city then began to press the Air Park to submit a site plan for approval and to begin providing some data on just what was in that landfill and what impact was it having on the water table. Was it polluted? Many people in northern Burlington thought is was and they wanted water and soil samples taken.
All the key players in the Airpark libel dispute: Vanessa Warren in the second row and Monte Dennis on the right. The publisher of the Gazette is also a party to the libel case.
The good folks at the Air Park were not only taking exception to the demands the city was making but they took exception to what the Gazette and its publisher had written along with the comments of two citizens: Vanessa Warren and Monte Dennis. We were all sued for libel.
The libel case is still before the courts. The defendants are asking for financial data from the Air Park; the Air Park didn’t want to give any data – a Judge has heard arguments as to why the financial data should be made available and why it shouln’t. That decision is due any day now.
Meanwhile the city is awaiting a decision on their request that a Judge compel the Air Park to submit a site plan for approval and that the landfill that was dumped on the property without any kind of permit be removed.
It is the decision on that case that everyone has been waiting for. Many believe that whatever the Judge decides the losing side will appeal and that this case could go all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada
There are those who believe that the Air Park is not in a position to move more than a couple of truck loads of fill if a Judge orders them to do so – they have already spent a reported hundreds of thousands of dollars on the various court cases – and all the bills aren’t in yet.
Might the Air Park be getting close to being tapped out?
