Councillor requests city remove contentious lands from urban boundary or risk facing legal action

Ottawa City Council will address a motion on Wednesday that will determine whether or not to remove 445 hectares in the rural southeast from the city’s urban boundary.

The Tewin lands, as they are called, are largely owned by the Algonquins of Ontario (AOO). The AOO, in partnership with the developer Taggart Group, received permission from the city in 2021 to pursue a development near Highway 417 and Anderson Road, east of Leitrim and west of Carlsbad Springs. The organization says the community has the potential to accommodate between 35,000 and 45,000 residents.

The AOO has said the development is a “natural evolution for Ottawa” and will “serve as a model for healthy, innovative, and integrated development.”

“I think it’s a very thoughtful plan to help the Algonquins of Ontario,” former mayor Jim Watson said of the project when the decision on the lands was made in 2021. “They believe it’s reconciliation, and I’m not going to second-guess their views on that. I think that it’s a very exciting project to help both the Algonquin Ontario Nation as well as the east end of the City of Ottawa.”

But the proposed development has not received ground-swept approval.

Later that same year, Councillor Riley Brockington brought forward a motion to remove the Tewin lands from the urban boundary. His argument focused on the land’s distance from existing city infrastructure and who would be responsible for building libraries and schools.

The city’s own Infrastructure Master Plan estimates the cost of providing water and wastewater services alone to the Tewin Community at approximately $591 million.

Brockington’s motion was defeated 15-8.

Ecology Ottawa, among other environmental organizations, have also expressed concerns with clear-cutting trees in the development area.

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But others are concerned about the development’s lack of proper consultation with First Nations groups.

The AOO is not a First Nation recognized by the Federal Government under the Indian Act. The Ontario Superior Court instead identifies it as “an unincorporated entity which was created to negotiate with the governments of Ontario and Canada in the Algonquin-Ontario negotiations.”

Grand Chief Savanna McGregor of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council has expressed grave disapproval of the development on the basis of a failure to consult.

“We want to make it abundantly clear that just because a landowner whose realty corporation is partly owned by one Algonquin First Nation and self-identified Algonquin people, does not qualify it as an act of reconciliation with the Algonquin Anishinabe Nation,” she stated.

The Algonquin Anishnabeg Nation Tribal Council was not consulted during the urban boundary expansion process.

Bay Ward Councillor Theresa Kavanagh is now reintroducing a motion previously brought forward in March in an attempt to remove the lands from the urban boundary area.

She says there is a very real threat that the city could face legal action from the First Nations of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council.

The Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council consists of the rights-holding First Nations to the lands in question. Under Section 35 of the Constitution Act, as well as the city’s own Official Plan and Reconciliation Action Plan, consultation is required when “policies, plans, or developments may affect Indigenous rights, interests, or lands”.

Some councillors have expressed the opinion that the city has already gone too far with the Tewin development to turn back. But that does not satisfy Kavanagh or the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council.

The motion will be brought forward for a vote at the city’s Planning and Development Committee on Oct. 15.