News Articles

EXPROPRIATION

People's property may sometimes be coveted by municipalities or other public authorities who wish to use it for what they claim to be public purposes and if it cannot be bought from the owner, they will expropriate the property.

Expropriation is created by an act of the legislature known as the Expropriation Act which, for example, entitles a municipality to pass a bylaw or resolution expropriating all or a portion of somebody's land.  The Act is very specific that as long as the municipality considers it to be fair, sound and reasonably necessary in the fulfillment of the objectives of the expropriating authority, it cannot be challenged by the owner.

If a Notice of Objection is filed, there is a Hearing before an enquiry officer appointed by the Minister of Justice.  However, he reports to the municipality if that is the expropriating authority and Council, in its wisdom, may accept or reject the report and expropriate the land.  The only remedy which the owner has, is to go to Court and show that in some manner, the municipality has not acted strictly in law.  This is very difficult in practice and the fact remains that the powers which the expropriating authority has is awesome.

Once this procedure is complete, the municipality may get an expropriation certificate and the land is vested in the municipality.  If there is no agreement on compensation, there is a land compensation board which will hold a hearing and award  damages to the owner.  The Court's powers to intervene are very limited.

The purpose of writing this article is to show how vast are the powers of an expropriating authority and how limited are the remedies available to the citizen.

There is nothing, for example, in the Expropriation Act which would compel the municipality to give notice of its meeting to vote on expropriation to the owner so that he can be present and speak on his own behalf.  Natural justice clearly demands that this may be done, yet, for example, it is not the practice of the City of Red Deer to do so.  Most citizens are over impressed by bureaucracy that in the majority of the cases, they are steam-rolled by the expropriating authority.

It is therefore suggested that citizens contact their MLA's and urge upon the Provincial Government to come up with a fairer expropriation act where citizens have a right to be heard by an independent body which determine whether their land or property should be taken from them.  This is supposed to be a free country. 

By Herbert Fielding
September 3, 2003