Road approved despite threat to salamander
Copyright 2001 Toronto Star
September 11, 2001
By Gail Swainson, YORK REGION BUREAU
York Region has awarded a controversial contract to extend Bayview Ave. through a forest on the Oak Ridges Moraine, despite a frantic 11th-hour court appeal launched in a bid to save a rare and threatened species of salamander.
"Even with all the outrage over development on the Oak Ridges Moraine, York Region seems determined to bulldoze this thing through," biologist Natalie Helferty said in an interview after regional council's unanimous vote last Thursday.
The application for judicial review of the project's environmental assessment was filed in Divisional Court by the environmental group Save the Rouge Valley System Inc. late Wednesday afternoon. Ramona Wall, with Save the Rouge, said yesterday the case is scheduled to be heard in Divisional Court this Friday.
The group had hoped to stall the region's decision to award the $10.2 million contract to Miller Paving Inc.
The suit claims the extension of Bayview through the Jefferson Forest from Stouffville Rd. to Bloomington Rd. will damage the natural habitat of the Jefferson salamander, which environmentalists say is nearing extinction.
The group is asking the court to set aside provincial approval of an environmental assessment, saying the salamander was just recently discovered to inhabit the area, something the assessment failed to note.
Based on this new information, the court is being asked to issue an order prohibiting York Region from proceeding with construction of the new road.
Council also passed a motion Thursday calling on the province to draft tough new legislation to protect the moraine from development. It is ironic that council supports the protection plan, while endorsing road construction across some of the moraine's most sensitive portions, Helferty said.
She warned that tendering the contract before the suit is even heard could expose the region to a costly lawsuit from Miller Paving should the courts side with environmentalists.
Furthermore, awarding the contract while the province is just weeks away from deciding whether new development will even be permitted on the moraine defies logic, she added.
Queen's Park announced a six-month freeze on moraine development in May. Municipal Affairs Minister Chris Hodgson is expected to introduce legislation barring development on much of the moraine before the moratorium ends Nov. 17.
"Why not wait to see what the province and the courts do?" Helferty said later. "Anyway, why would the region run the risk of a lawsuit from the road builder?"
Regional solicitor Phyllis Carlyle conceded Miller Paving could have grounds to sue the region should the lawsuit succeed, but she says the odds against that success are so great that it isn't worth a delay.