FCA decries proposed repeal of City’s Policy on Seeking Legal Costs
At its meeting on September 14, City Council will be asked to support a recommendation by the Finance and Economic Development Committee, to repeal the City’s current policy, which allows public interest litigants freedom from fear that the City will attempt to recover costs resulting from community action.
In a letter dated September 13 (see attachment), Graeme Roderick, President of the Federation of Citizens’ Associations of Ottawa-Carleton, appealed to Mayor Jim Watson and all City Councillors to oppose the committee recommendation.
With reference to the Friends of Lansdowne’s current appeal to the OMB, Roderick warns that “to take one exceptional case as a pretext for repealing this policy flies in the face of growing efforts by provincial governments in Quebec and Ontario to limit the ability of those with the greater financial resources to use the “awarding of costs” motions before administrative tribunals and the courts as a way of limiting the ability of public interest groups and citizens to exercise their rights when challenging the decisions of a legislative body”.
Roderick cautions that “community groups have no choice but to engage with quasi-judicial bodies such as the Ontario Municipal Board and with the courts to resolve contested planning and similar matters. They do so with limited resources at their disposal and with only their understanding of the public interest as motivation”.
Initially adopting this policy in February 2009, Ottawa was the first Ontario municipality to adopt this right of the citizenry to challenge public policy in the courts unimpeded by so-called SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation).
As the voice of community associations in the region, the FCA is appalled at this threatened loss of freedom, and urges the Mayor and Councillors not to back-track on this fundamental democratic right
CHARA is a member of the FCA