Elias Rabinovitch Law

Eastern Ontario Expropriation

Kingston expropriation lawyer

Two things are moving through Kingston at once, and they run under different statutes. The Province is adding a third lane in each direction to Highway 401 across eastern Ontario, and separately a Kingston station has come onto the table for the proposed Alto high-speed rail corridor between Toronto and Quebec City. The rail project is federal, which matters more than it sounds: a federal taking follows the federal Expropriation Act, not Ontario's, with its own notice periods, its own process and its own costs regime.

If you have been served, you have 30 days to return your Notice of Election and choose the date your land is valued at. Miss it and the registration date is chosen for you. On Highway 413 and the priority transit projects the separate right to request a hearing of necessity has been abolished by statute, so do not wait for one. Read what to do after an expropriation notice.

647-547-6734 elias@eliasdefence.ca

This page is legal information, not legal advice. It describes the law in general terms and cannot account for the facts of your situation. Reading it does not create a lawyer and client relationship. For advice you can act on, speak with a lawyer about your own matter.

What is taking land in Kingston

Alto high-speed rail corridor

A proposed high-speed line between Toronto and Quebec City, with a Kingston station under consideration. The route is not fixed, and at this stage nothing is being taken. That makes the useful move engagement in the consultation while alignment decisions are still open, rather than waiting for a notice.

Highway 401 widening, eastern Ontario

A third lane in each direction across the eastern corridor, with land acquisition in the region running ahead of construction. Widening an existing right of way takes frontage rather than whole parcels, which puts injurious affection to what you keep at the centre of the claim.

Municipal growth and servicing

Kingston has been earmarking large tracts of rural land for future housing and employment growth. Servicing that land takes frontage and registers permanent easements, on a municipal timeline separate from the provincial and federal projects.

Worth knowing in Kingston

Work out which government is taking the land before you respond to anything. A high-speed rail taking is a federal undertaking and runs under the federal Expropriation Act, which has different notice periods, a different objection process and a different costs regime from Ontario's. A Highway 401 taking runs under Ontario's Act and the PTHIA, where the hearing of necessity was removed in 2020 but the 30-day section 10 valuation-date election and section 32 costs survive. A municipal servicing taking runs under Ontario's Act in full, hearing of necessity included. Three notices in the same mailbox can carry three different sets of rights, and the deadlines do not wait while an owner works out which is which.

Who can expropriate in Kingston

  • •The Government of Canada and its agencies, under the federal Expropriation Act
  • •The Province of Ontario and the Ministry of Transportation
  • •The City of Kingston and Frontenac County
  • •Hydro One and Utilities Kingston
  • •Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority

What you are owed does not change by municipality

The Expropriations Act applies the same way in Kingston as anywhere else in Ontario. What differs is which authority is taking the land and what the works do to what you keep.

  • •Market value of the land taken, assessed without regard to any change in value caused by the scheme of the expropriation itself.
  • •Injurious affection, the drop in value of the land you keep. On partial takings this is frequently worth more than the strip taken.
  • •Injurious affection where no land is taken, under section 1(1)(b), for owners damaged by the construction of the works, and not their use, even though nothing of theirs is expropriated. Section 22 bars this claim absolutely unless it is made in writing with particulars within one year of the damage being sustained or becoming known, and nothing is served on you to warn you the clock is running.
  • •Disturbance damages, the real costs you incur: moving, storage, mortgage prepayment penalties, professional fees, re-establishment.
  • •Business loss, if you operate on the property, including lost profits and goodwill attributable to the works.
  • •Interest at 6% per year under section 33 on the market value and injurious affection portions, running from when you cease to reside on or make productive use of the land, and where the land taken was your home, a 5% allowance on the market value of the residential part under section 18(1)(a)(i), provided the land was not being offered for sale on the date of expropriation. That allowance is payable to an owner other than a tenant; a tenant is compensated for disturbance under section 18(2) instead, apportioned by the length of the term and the tenant's investment.

Under section 32, if the Ontario Land Tribunal awards you 85% or more of the amount the authority offered, the authority pays your reasonable legal and appraisal costs, and you do not have to beat the offer outright to get there. The qualification worth knowing is that the Court of Appeal held in Shergar that "the amount offered" includes later settlement offers, not just the section 25 offer, so an improved offer raises the bar and falling below it puts costs in the Tribunal's discretion. Favourable, but conditional.

Served in Kingston? Here is how to get advice.

The first conversation is free and confidential. I act for property owners and businesses across Eastern Ontario and throughout Ontario, and I handle every file personally.

647-547-6734Expropriation practice

General legal information about Ontario expropriation law, not legal advice. Reading this page does not create a solicitor and client relationship.

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