This new bill, which modernizes the old law some forty years old, will allow cities and the state to make significant savings on expropriations related to infrastructure projects or public land acquisitions.
“It’s music to our ears for us,” Montreal Mayor and Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM) President Valérie Plante said Tuesday morning, who was accompanied by UMQ President Martin Damphouse to meet with the media.
“At both the CMM and UMQ levels, this is something we have been asking for for a very, very long time to give us the oxygen and the means to our ambitions. »
– A quote from Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal and President of the CMM
“If I can give you a very specific example,” explained Martin Damphousse. There are several golf course owners who wish to evaluate the terrain for future zoning. […] Very often it’s park-golf zoning, but people estimate the market value is based on future zoning, so they’re talking 300, 400, 500 million.
The new expropriation law states that it corresponds to the actual value of today. The UMQ President estimates that the difference is particularly large here.
Following the logic of current legislation, the proposed expropriation bill for the Montreal Metro’s blue line extension cost four times more than expected, namely $1.2 billion instead of just over $300 million.
In eastern Montreal, many lands had to be expropriated to allow for the extension of the Montreal Metro blue line. Several have been contested by the owners.
Photo: Radio Canada / Jean-Sebastien Cloutier
All the money paid due to the market potential of these plots could have been invested elsewhere, emphasizes Valérie Plante, for whom it was the right decision.
It goes without saying that the savings that governments will make on future projects or purchases of land to create parks or conservation areas will be significant. It will be of great use for future projects, the mayor assured.
Quebec is the last province in Canada where the interpretation of the eminent domain law aligns owners’ compensation with the expected value of their land.
Infringement of Property Rights
A view not shared by members of the Urban Development Institute of Quebec (IDU), who say cutting compensation for property owners would undermine Quebec’s economic attractiveness.
Founded in 1987, IDU is the premier representative of Quebec’s commercial real estate industry.
According to former minister Jean-Marc Fournier, now the institute’s CEO, compensation after expropriation is handled in the same way in Quebec as in the other provinces, despite a different vocabulary.
In an analysis conducted by the IDU Legal Circle in September 2022, the authors acknowledge that existing expropriation law could indeed be amended to speed up the expropriation process and establish more justice between the expropriating party and the expropriated part.
But the IDU disagrees with the UMQ’s call for legislative reform regarding the rules for compensating the dispossessed party. These claims constitute a fundamental violation of the dispossessed party’s right to property and its right to fair and equitable compensation, the document said.
The power of the state to appropriate the property of its citizens without their consent is one of the most serious powers the state can exercise over its citizens, IDU analysts say.
For the latter, the unilateral nature of the expropriating party’s action must be taken into account and given due consideration when compensating the expropriated.
Any change [à la loi] that would not allow full compensation for the dispossessed party would be abusive, depreciate the value of the property right and undermine Quebec’s economic attractiveness, the IDU concludes.