Thread: Municipal land-grabbing powers should be curtailed

Frontier Centre for Public Policy

Municipal land-grabbing powers should be curtailed

By Troy Media
Monday, July 27, 2009

The Frontier Centre recommends not allowing municipal bodies to expropriate for economic development purposes;
At a minimum, individual landowners should possess more procedural safeguards that ensure their land is not taken arbitrarily by governments.


WINNIPEG– The Frontier Centre for Public Policy today released a study from policy analyst Joseph Quesnel which looks at the practice of municipal expropriation for economic development. In his study, Quesnel argues that this practice must be curbed as it prone to serious abuse.

The Frontier Centre backgrounder, Expropriating for Economic Development: A Carte Blanche for Municipal Mismanagement, looks at the case study of the Fouillard family in rural Manitoba. This family had their land forcefully expropriated by the municipality of Ellice in order to make way for the municipality’s planned tourist venture. During the process, the municipality ignored recommendations from an independent inquiry that said Ellice did not require as much land as they eventually expropriated. The Fouillards also have evidence the municipality is seeking third-party developers for the project. They also have yet to hear of any concrete plans for the property.

“Individual property owners need to be protected from this sort of government duplicity and abuse. In many cases, it is clearly a case of David-versus-Goliath where governments act as the latter with the ability to bully individuals into selling their land,â€

In Socialist countries all land and propoerty is owned by the government.