A look at real estate | Expropriation reform: we fear abuse of power

The modernization of the Expropriation law aims to reduce the costs of public projects as a structuring mode of transport. Its critics speak instead of cheap expropriation, an exception in the Canadian legal environment which opens the door to possible abuse of power.


Bill 22 changes the rules setting the compensation to be paid to the expropriated owner. In short, he will receive less than what he was entitled to receive until now. For its part, the expropriating party will be able to achieve these ends more quickly and at lower cost.

At a time when parliamentarians are hearing from civil society in a parliamentary committee, three groups are warning lawmakers against the risk of abuses if Bill 22 on expropriation is adopted as worded.

“On reading it, we feel, the expropriated party was never consulted to develop the bill,” said, on the telephone, Isabelle Melançon, boss of the Urban Development Institute of Quebec (IDU), the lobby of real estate agents. Only representatives of the expropriating party were consulted. Rights are withdrawn from the expropriated. From the moment there is an imbalance, there is danger. »

“The fact that it is expensive to carry out an expropriation is a bulwark that protects the rights of citizens,” says Daniel Dufort, CEO of the Montreal Economic Development Institute (IEDM), a pressure group. in favor of the law of the market. As soon as we set the bar lower, it opens the door to abuses. The right to property is the fundamental right in a free economy. »

The MEI maintains that the decline in property rights will have a negative impact on the business climate and on investment decisions in Quebec.

Impoverishment of the expropriated in sight

The Order of Approved Appraisers of Quebec (OÉAQ) does not mince its words in its 87-page brief. “There is a potential for impoverishment of the expropriated and a weighting favorable to the abuse of the rights available to the expropriating bodies. »

The thousands of small expropriated people throughout Quebec are clearly poorly protected by the wording of the law currently. When we exclude the value to the owner, we exclude so many potential compensation factors in terms of damages caused by expropriators. The little expropriated people will automatically become poorer. That can’t exist when we’re being expropriated. We didn’t ask to be expropriated, we understand.

Pierre Goudreau, president of the Order of Approved Appraisers of Quebec

Of the 244 articles contained in the bill, the OEAQ is requesting the withdrawal or modifications to no less than 130 articles. The organization deplores in particular that the definitions of market value and best and most profitable use move away from those recognized at the international level “and distort the practice of evaluation for expropriation purposes according to generally recognized principles . »

Disguised expropriation

No less critical, the IDU opposes articles 73 to 133 of the bill in its 52-page memorandum presented on Wednesday.

Among the criticisms made by the IDU, there is the omission in article 87 of bill 22 to exclude the planning blight or disguised expropriation when the time comes to determine the market value of a building that is the subject of an expropriation process, as the courts have long established.

THE planning blight represents “the laws and regulations and the actions and omissions of the expropriating authority or on its initiative with a view to the expropriation. »

Let’s take the example of a city that changes the residential zoning of vacant land to park zoning and then precedes the expropriation. The current rules say that we must rule out this change of zoning to park when the time comes to assess the value of the expropriated property. Bill 22 removes this provision, according to the IDU.

“These new rules are not found in the expropriation laws of other Canadian jurisdictions,” argues the IDU. […] These new rules risk harming the economic attractiveness of Quebec, at a time when [la société est appelée] to mobilize to resolve the housing crisis,” writes the IDU.

The Order of Approved Appraisers of Quebec (OÉAQ) adds: “PL22 could open the door to cases of disguised expropriations or planning blight. »

The common good

For the municipal authorities, which called for reform, Bill 22 aims to enable virtuous projects such as parks to be quickly carried out by simply paying the equivalent of fair compensation to the owner who is expropriated of his land. .

According to the point of view of the Union of Municipalities of Quebec (UMQ), Bill 22, by abandoning the value to the owner and moving closer to the market value, finally modernizes the law in the sense of Ontario and the British Columbia. An assertion that the IDU disputes.

For their part, professors Jean-Philippe Meloche, of the University of Montreal, and Danièle Pilette, of UQAM, view Bill 22 favorably and are not worried about possible abuses.

“There are good reasons to think that the bill is a good idea to begin with,” Mr. Meloche said by telephone. The idea is to approximate a market value when we carry out an expropriation rather than a punitive value. » According to him, the application of this principle will lower project costs in Quebec.

He gives the example of golf courses where there is often overbidding on expropriation. “Judgments rendered on certain expropriations were ridiculous because there was no link with the market value of the property given its use,” he underlines. He would also be surprised if the law discouraged real estate investment.

This version of Law 22 does not provide anything to oblige Cities to ultimately carry out the project at the source of the expropriation.

“If we carry out expropriations, it takes money. The constraint is the availability of money for the municipal sector,” retorts Professor Pilette, who does not believe that the use of expropriations will increase because of the proposed changes.

Learn more

  • 1000
    The usual number of expropriation files processed in Quebec annually

    Government of Quebec


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