Twenty years in industrial development did nothing to prepare Laurie Bradley for getting hit with a potential land grab. When the City of Saskatoon vowed to seize a slice of his industrial park without compensation, he went hunting for solutions. The threat was doubly disturbing since the land in question is not in the City’s jurisdiction.
The 22-acres in question comprise the final phase of the East Cory Industrial Park located north of the city in the RM of Corman Park. Local leaders have spoken against this land grab. “Land around the city of Saskatoon and especially in Corman Park is valuable,” said the Reeve of the RM of Corman Park, Judy Harwood. “I don’t think anyone should be expected to give up their land without being compensated.”
At least one Saskatoon city councillor agrees. “It’s not right,” councillor Darren Hill said in an interview. “This should send alarm bells to every other landowner and to every other developer within and surrounding Saskatoon city limits.” Councillor Hill recently submitted formal inquiries to city council, seeking answers for the city’s proposed seizure.
In a communication to Mr. Bradley, the city indicated it will use Section 184 of the 2007 Planning and Development Act (PDA) to justify the seizure. Section 184 of this provincial legislation says an “approving authority” can take land without compensation for public highways. However, the province’s policy and regular practice is to negotiate with landowners to arrive at a fair purchase price for land that is required for highways. Section 184 also says the land being taken is for “the Crown” (the province). In Bradley’s case, the land being taken is specifically for “the city.”
Bradley and others contend the city is deliberately misinterpreting Section 184. “This legislation is flawed and needs to be amended,” Bradley has said. In a 2019 letter to Bradley, the honourable Lori Carr, then Minister of Government Relations, confirmed the City of Saskatoon is not the “approving authority” in this situation. That responsibility falls within her department. Bradley has also met with MLA Randy Weekes who said a situation like this was not anticipated by Section 184 of the Planning and Development Act.
The city has made huge investments into other land acquisitions in this same area north of Saskatoon, according to Hill. One of those acquisitions involved the 2015 purchase of a massive 155-acre parcel known as the Wheaton land. The city won the bid on the purchase, but the move rankled the RM of Corman Park. “How is this regional cooperation?” Harwood said at the time. The RM would have welcomed multiple developers to the site. Instead, the land has lain dormant for the past seven years, resulting in lost financial prosperity for the region and lost tax revenues for the RM.
To win the bid for the Wheaton land, Saskatoon paid top dollar. Hill estimates the purchase price may have been up to two times the market value. But the city can afford it. “Our land bank generates return on investment. We see significant revenue generated from our development and from our land bank, and that revenue goes into the purchase of more land. It’s not that we don’t have the money to pay for that [East Cory Park] land.”
A city that functions as both a municipal government responsible for investing public funds and as a developer with a land bank creates some unique challenges.
“The City of Saskatoon is the sole source of raw commercial/industrial developed land within its boundaries; a rare monopoly that few cities in Canada retain,” Bradley said.
If the city has already provided “very adequate compensation,” according to Hill, for large tracts of land in the same area as Bradley’s parcel, and the city can afford it, why would they not simply purchase Bradley’s land?
Of particular interest to the city is six acres of the 22-acre plot, informally dubbed “the airstrip.” They propose to create a vital connector roadway between two huge tracts of land the city recently acquired for their land bank — one south of Highway 11 and the other west of Highway 12.
A new wrinkle was added when the province recently identified where the major interchange will go in the north portion of the proposed Saskatoon Freeway. “That is going to eat up a significant volume of that Wheaton land,” Hill observed. Whatever it also means in the Bradley situation, “that’s in the future and shouldn’t have a bearing on this decision. If we didn’t do the proper planning to make a road to get from south to west, that’s our fault. So, lets pay for the acquisition to do that planning.”
This land grab may well set off alarm bells beyond the local situation. Nothing about Section 184 limits its application to Saskatoon and area. If successfully applied against Mr. Bradley’s property, presumably it could set a province-wide precedent. “If that loophole really does exist, then it becomes the responsibility of the provincial government to review that legislation and ensure something like this can’t happen to other landowners,” Hill said. “The precedent it sets is just overwhelming.”
Prairie cities, Saskatoon and Regina, both received an “F” grade in a recent national financial transparency report that covers 31 Canadian cities. Both cities “fail to meet a minimal standard of transparency, usefulness and timeliness” according to the C. D. Howe ranking (Calgary Herald, Feb. 1, 2022). Perhaps it is initiatives like this land seizure that helped Saskatoon reach the bottom of the research rankings.
For four years, Bradley has lobbied the city and the province while his “airstrip” is frozen. Hill noted Bradley has been fair in his dealings with the city. The provincial government said it will take Bradley’s comments on Section 184 into consideration the next time they conduct a review of the PDA. It’s not currently on their calendar.
The land seizure may require a decision by the Saskatchewan Municipal Board. Councillor Hill’s inquiries into the situation will be addressed in a City of Saskatoon public meeting later this month.