CORNWALL Ontario – The City of Cornwall has responded to construction starting again on the old Kaneb 
Oil Tank property by Trillium Distribution Cornwall Inc. today as well as that company’s appeal of its bylaw designed to stop construction on the waterfront.
CFN has learned that concrete was scheduled to start pouring on the site at 11 AM Thursday morning.
The City has posted a stop work order, but the question is it all smoke as no legal entity has publicly stated if the municipality or even Province has jurisdiction of Crown land.
Here is the city’s release:
The City of Cornwall has issued orders to comply and stop work orders today at the storage tanks site in the harbour area to prevent further work from proceeding and to have the owner and contractor comply with the Interim Control Bylaw passed by City Council on December 9th, 2013.
The orders to comply and stop work orders were issued by Chris Rogers, Chief Building Official and Bylaw Supervisor, after activity resumed on the site.
The effect of the Interim Control Bylaw is to prevent the use of the land for any use other than open space and is in effect for a period of one year, with a possible one year extension. It is intended to give Council and City staff an opportunity to study and subsequently consider adopting different zoning strategies for the area.
Trillium Distribution Cornwall Inc. has launched an appeal of the Interim Control Bylaw to the Ontario Municipal Board. A hearing date for that matter has yet to be scheduled.
In a separate matter, on Friday, February 14th, Trillium Distribution Cornwall Inc. filed an application in Ontario Superior Court. The application seeks an order to quash the Interim Control Bylaw on the grounds that the City does not have jurisdiction over federally-owned lands. In effect, the action launched by the applicant suggests that the Federal Government has sole jurisdiction over development on the lands.The City intends to defend the Interim Control Bylaw at the Ontario Municipal Board as well as the court action launched by Trillium Distribution Cornwall Inc.
The big question this morning is whether crews at the TDC Inc. site will respect a city order which may not be valid and how much this charade is going to cost taxpayers and whether council will ever hold the mayor and Economic Development responsible for this utter black mark on our development plan for the city?
Chuck Charlebois, for some strange reason sent a protest letter to our MP Guy Lauzon. MP Lauzon who stated originally that he knew nothing about the tanks has been all but silence in regards to removing the tanks to date. Mr. Charlebois previously sabotaged a rally against the tanks.
We are reposting our online petition asking for the tanks to be stopped. It’s interesting if you take a moment to see how few community leaders have signed it, especially as it’s such a basic question.
[emailpetition id=”7″]
[signaturelist id=”7″]
What do you think dear CFN viewers. You can post your comments below.
Stop work Order on the project. Cheers council
This is going to be interesting to see how this flows though the monetary channels.
Who is going to cover the costs of lost revenue with the contractors, operators and builders under the current construction contract?
What about all the companies given a contract to supply materials such as the cement company? Who will cover the costs of that when they sue Trillium for these losses?
What about all contracts promised to clients that would have used the silos? Who will cover the monies when they sue Trillium for breach of contract???
Tax payers will be on the mend for this one again. Does anyone remember McGuinty and the gas plants in Mississauga??? Very same scenario
I hope you all enjoy your empty space as it will probably cost you dearly further creating an empty space in your wallets
Perhaps the City could park an unused city truck or two across the entrance to Trillium’s uglification project; maybe rotate the tires or something.
Surely the city can come up with some innovative activities to impede this insult to the community.
For once I agree with Hailey Brown. This fight is going to cost the city taxpayers major $$$. The lands the tanks are being built on are owned by the federal government. In Canada lower levels of government cannot tell more senior levels of government what to do or how to do it. The interim by-law saying no work can be done on the tank lands and the stop work order have no validity and the courts will determine this. They will look at what the laws says and that’s all. The city can present it’s case that they should have been consulted. But in the end the federal government will get their way. It’s nice that the city doesn’t want tanks or anything else unsightly on those lands. But in the end the lands are owned by the federal government and they alone determine what happens to those lands. That is unless the city and the MCA can come to some sort of agreement and then buy the harbour lands. But even if that is done the city will be bound to any existing contracts the federal government has with anyone in regard to the habour lands. On a personal note I don’t want the tanks there either. But I realize that the lands are owned by the federal government. If the city continues this fight it’s going to cost the city and taxpayers dearly.
Another thought comes to mind ….Economic development holds the belief that Cornwall has to shed its mill town image, situations such as this only go to prove it strongly exists.
All these people want this to end and have no clue of the repercussions nor the lack of control a city has over what they do not own.
I think what Economic development needs to do is realize the mill town image is the people not the smell.
With that this has also shown how council and local individuals lack the intellectual ability to work with others. Which is to say that we are enforcing Cornwall’s stand alone policy in a time when we can use all the outside help we can get to provide gainful employment….
What ED and the Mayor need to do is come clean to what exactly happened.
I am not in favor of these tanks on the waterfront but if nothing can be done legally then so be it. I would now find a way to make this project as cosmetically pleasing as possible for the sake of the future waterfront. Currently I feel no one is to blame entirely, but the waterfront committee should have found a way to control what happens to this land as soon as the old tanks were torn down and not wait until something happened. It has been a weed bed since old tanks removed.
Dave the issue was process. I believe something could have been done if the community was told early before construction started. Council is hiding the facts and refusing to come clean and answer basic questions.
They have impeached their collective integrity, again, and have violated their oaths of office.
How can you control what you do not own?
It is not riverfront land it belongs to the federal government.
I agree that the issue is the process, but it was the process of the waterfront committee not doing what should have been done from the get go when the old tanks came down that has created the scenario today, and as I stated before the project should now be watched to be sure it is as cosmetically pleasing as possible since there does not seem to be any legal way of stopping the build.
Well at least one stop work order seems to have taken affect
Our MP Guy Lauzon has stopped working for Canadian Veterans and is blindly following the party line
that everything is just fine as the deaths due to suicides continue to mount.
Now each and every time he is asked about the Tanks issue his reply seems to be “I know Nothing”,
Guy had no trouble putting up signs all over this area asking us to Support Our Troops
Now we realize this was all just a political show he was putting on…he should resign
If you read the Stop Work Order, all it really says is that they have not applied for a permit from the City. How long do you think it will take to get a permit? Not long methinks…..
Stan you haven’t tried to get a permit in Cornwall 😉
I think that Hailey Brown’s opinion is soured by the unfortunate fact that she has a challenged child as she has mentioned previously. She spews bile in the guise of intellect when in a foul mood. Logic would improve your arguments Ms. Brown.
420 what are you trying to say about Hayley Brown having a challenged child. Everybody is born different and don’t knock this woman or her child because of what happened at birth. My God Almighty not everyone is born a genius for heaven sake.
As for Hayley Brown she is a very intelligent woman and comes off well and very intelligent spoken here on the blogs. I don’t know this lady personally at all but what I read she is intelligent.
About those tanks the workers have done quite a job on this so far and it looks like they are going through. Nobody in their right frame of mind will buy condos along the river with such things in their back yards.
Jules I have a hunch Hailey is a man….
Jamie (Admin) whoever Hayley is man or woman is a logical person the way he/she speaks in the blogs. I don’t often agree with the lady/gentleman but I do see that person’s point of view and whoever Hayley is is a very intelligent person.
Jules, Jules, Jules…
Jules, Jules, Jules is right. LOL LOL. I have to tell you something so as to put a smile on your face of all the crazy things going on. Just lately I stumbled on a web site of quilting from France and as you know I do quilting. Well on that site there was this woman who had pictures of her dog who is now deceased name JULES. I had such a good laugh that it made my day. ARF! ARF! LOL LOL. I thought that I would tell you that one Jamie. I am not the only Jules around and there must be a lot of us somewhere. I wanted to make you laugh.
Thank You Jules
It is nice to see somebody that though they do not agree with others they still respect their opinions.
Maybe if more people had such a trait Cornwall could shed its veil of a mill town image.
You are very welcome Hailey Brown. You do speak very intelligently and logically and we don’t all have to agree as long as we respect each other’s opinion. This isn’t the only web site with spats even forums like quilting and others have their spats and I no longer go on since a long time to see adults acting like kids. Cornwall is going to have a very hard time to shake off mill town unless the people get educated. People were earning top wages and no education at all and industries packed up and left for good. I do see eye to eye what you are talking about using the land for taxes but Hailey look at those Cotton Mill condos and would you believe that I saw one at $400K and I almost fell off my chair because I couldn’t believe it. Now with chemical tanks in their back yard and a lowly neighborhood who in their right frame of mind is going to buy a condo down there.