Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
Transport and Communications

Issue 4 - Evidence

OTTAWA, Tuesday, May 14, 1996

The Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications, to which was referred Bill S-7, to dissolve the Nipissing and James Bay Railway Company, met this day at 5:15 p.m. to give consideration to the bill.

Senator Lise Bacon (Chairman) in the Chair.

[English]

The Chairman: Honourable senators, we have on our agenda today the consideration of Bill S-7.

I would ask senators to stay here for a few minutes afterwards in camera so we can adopt the budget for our study of communications.

Our witness is from the Corporation of the City of North Bay, Mr. Michael Burke, who is city solicitor. We apologize for the delay. Please proceed.

Mr. Michael B. Burke, City Solicitor, Corporation of the City of North Bay: Thank you very much. We were happy to wait. We are used to political life and the exercise of democracy. We know it takes time.

Honourable senators, my purpose here is to prove the facts referred to in the preamble to Bill S-7. I have an opening statement, following which I would be pleased to answer any questions.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Senator Kelleher for sponsoring the bill and for understanding the problems the situation has created for us.

This problem arose in 1986 when the community college in North Bay wanted a new road to the college. They thought they owned all the land around the college, including the land on which this road was to be situate. They agreed to give us all the land and, lo and behold, we found a parcel of land 4,300 feet long by 100 feet wide that bisected the road.

The college's private solicitor started to work on the problem, obtained an opinion from Gowling & Henderson as to what alternatives to take, and exhausted himself trying to follow all those alternatives. The direction essentially was to get the corporate owner in a position where the provincial Escheats Act would apply. Because the land is owned by a railway company, incorporated by special act of Parliament in 1884, the usual Canada Business Corporations Act and Winding-up Act procedures do not apply. Because it is a federal railway company, there are serious reservations about whether the Expropriation Act would apply. The Public Trustee for Ontario refused to take any action under the Escheats Act unless we could prove the corporations had been dissolved.

We corresponded for some time with the then Minister of State for Transport, Shirley Martin, who basically sent us back to cover most of the ground we had already covered. She then referred the problem to the Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs, and Minister Pierre Blais indicated that he had no authority to revoke the charter. In his final letter to us in 1994, he indicated that, in the end, a private member's bill may be the only way to terminate this special act and the corporation to which it relates.

Notices were published. There were a couple of local newspaper stories at the time. They generated a response from one person, known to me by the name of Terry Doyle, who said his grandfather had been a squatter in the area. He wanted to know whether his grandfather's name showed up anywhere on the title. It did not. He finished the story by saying that his grandfather apparently thought that that particular railway was the one that would be successful and that was why he was there; but, it was not successful, and he lost the land to taxes.

This project was completely abandoned. There is no evidence of any railway bed in the area. An archivist had done a search in 1988 and the trail ended in 1905 with really no way of being able to pick it up again -- no addresses, no minute book, nothing that would allow us to find the directors or their heirs. When we published notices in the Canada Gazette as part of this process. The only response we received was from a Western Canadian shortline railway operator who thought it might be neat if he could acquire the charter. He wanted to know if we could help him with that, and we indicated that that was not our purpose, that we only wanted to get title to our road and to clear up the title to the lands for the college, which owns hundreds of acres in this area and certainly surrounds all the subject land.

The urgency at the time we first began this application was that we thought a new hospital would be built on the lands and this parcel of land would have encumbered that project. The intention now is for the college to build a student residence on the land and, again, this issue presents a problem.

All the lawyers who have been involved in this case, from the Department of Justice, from the Ontario Public Trustee's office, and myself, seem to agree that this is our last recourse. We would appreciate your indulgence if you could help us with it.

Senator Bonnell: How big are the trees on this land now?

Mr. Burke: I am sure they have been cut once. The land goes by an escarpment, so the trees are not all that large.

Senator Bonnell: Who cut the trees?

Mr. Burke: Whoever lumbered in the area the very first time. It is not pristine land. It has been lumbered by Booth and Company.

Senator Bonnell: Since 1884, has it been logged?

Mr. Burke: Yes. The trees are nothing like old growth from Temagami or anything like that. The land is typical bush land. Protecting the escarpment is the problem this railway ran into. It could not get up and over this escarpment. It is a green belt, but there is nothing really significant about the trees. The area looks like anything else you would see while driving on Highway 11 or Highway 17.

Senator Bonnell: How many acres would be included?

Mr. Burke: Just under 10 acres.

Senator Bonnell: I think we should agree, Madam Chair, to pass this bill and let the university use the land.

The Chairman: Let us see if other members have questions to ask.

Are there any further questions?

Senator Adams: Was that land owned by a railway company before?

Mr. Burke: On the present title, the land is in the name of Nipissing and James Bay Railway. That company received a Crown patent to the land, but nothing ever happened with it. The company was abandoned. All the directors abandoned it. The last word was from a lawyer for one of the former directors who said, "We have nothing further to say; it is abandoned."

Senator Adams: In the meantime, had tracks ever been laid?

Mr. Burke: No tracks had been built on it. There is no evidence of a roadbed, just the land.

Senator Forrestall: Who will own the land?

Mr. Burke: It will go through the Crown, by way of the Public Trustee, and the municipality will make an application to the Ontario Public Trustee to acquire title to the road. Then the college will make an application to the Public Trustee to acquire the balance of the lands because it owns everything else around it.

Senator Robichaud: All for $1?

Mr. Burke: I do not know about that. The Ontario Public Trustee would like an appraisal. There will be finder's fees. There is another process we have to go through if this bill passes.

Senator Forrestall: It speaks loudly about the mess.

Mr. Burke: Yes, it does.

The Chairman: Honourable senators, shall we report the bill without amendment?

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

The Chairman: Carried.

The committee proceeded in camera.