Declaration order

Having received a request from the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing that an undertaking, namely:

The acquisition of lands in the Township of Uxbridge, in the Regional Municipality of Durham identified on Schedule A as the subject lands,

be declared not subject to the Environmental Assessment Act (the Act), its regulations, or a matter provided for under the Act, including the Class Environmental Assessment Process for (the former) Management Board Secretariat and Ontario Realty Corporation, pursuant to section 3.2 of the Act; and

Having been advised that the subject lands will be exchanged for government-owned lands in North Pickering, referred to as Seaton, the disposition of which has been subject to a previous Class Environmental Assessment Process;

Having been advised by the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing that if the undertaking is subject to the application of the Act, the following injury, damage or interference with the persons and property indicated will occur:

  1. The requirement to comply with the class environmental assessment process for the land acquisition will result in unnecessary additional cost to taxpayers and time and resources spent by government employees to conduct a project with negligible environmental effects.
  2. Further appeals of the class environmental assessment process may cause unreasonable delay to the execution of the overall land exchange.
  3. The timely protection of key lands in the Oak Ridges Moraine may be jeopardized.
  4. Failure or delay of the land exchange, with attendant economic and environmental consequences if it results in the need to negotiate a new agreement between the government and the landowner, would lead to delay in bringing ecologically sensitive lands into public ownership, when the existing agreement has been deemed by the Fairness Commissioner to be a fair exchange for the taxpayers of Ontario.

Having weighed such injury, damage, or interference against the betterment of the people of the whole or any part of Ontario by the protection, conservation and wise management in Ontario of the environment which would result from the undertaking being subject to the application of the Act;

The undersigned is of the opinion that it is in the public interest to declare and declares that the undertaking is not subject to the application of the Act for the following reasons:

  1. The acquisition of the subject lands will ensure the long-term protection, conservation and wise management of a key portion of the Oak Ridges Moraine by bringing those lands into public ownership.
  2. It is very likely that the acquisition of the subject lands will not result in any negative environmental effects as these lands will be protected from development in accordance with the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, 2001.
  3. Notice of the proposal to issue this order has been placed on Environmental Bill of Rights Registry. No comments have been received.

This Declaration Order is subject to the following terms and conditions:

  1. Where any activity which under this order would be declared not subject to the Act, is being carried out as, or is part of, an undertaking for which an environmental assessment has been accepted and approval to proceed received, the activity shall be carried out in accordance with any terms and conditions in the approval to proceed as well as the conditions of this order.
  2. Where any activity which is the subject of this order, is being carried out as, or is part of, another undertaking which is the subject of a declaration or exemption order under the Act, the activity exempt under this order shall be carried out in accordance with any terms and conditions in the other declaration or exemption order as well as the conditions in this order.

Dated the 23rd day of July, 2007 at Toronto.

Original signed by:
Minister of the Environment

Approved by O.C. number: 1815/2007
Date O.C. approved: August 16, 2007
Environmental assessment file number: EA-04-01