The District of Central Saanich must pay the legal costs of farm owners who cut down more than 100 protected trees on their property.
Justice Veronica Jackson in February dismissed Central Saanich’s arguments and allowed a petition brought forward by Margaret Ann McHattie and Jean Christison, owners of the Keating Cross Road farm where the trees were felled.
The McHattie family bought the property in 1937 before more than half of the lot was designated as Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) land in 1973. The owners began clearing trees on their non-ALR land in 2020 to expand grain and other crops, but the district said those actions were contrary to its tree protection bylaw.
Judge Jackson’s February decision found Central Saanich’s position “unreasonable because it did not take into account the effect of the tree protection bylaw on the landowners’ development to the density permitted for agriculture.” That also quashed a cease work order the district issued in November 2021.
Central Saanich filed a notice of appeal into Jackson’s judgment in March.
Court documents outline the dispute’s timeline as the landowners, noting their half-century history of farming, drafted a cease-and-desist letter to the district without a lawyer in early 2021 as they disagreed with the district’s position and they intended to cut down more trees.
While some protected trees on non-ALR land were already cut down, the landowners submitted a cut permit on Jan. 17, 2021, for additional protected trees after back-and-forths with Central Saanich. Later that month, the owners and their legal counsel wrote to the district that there was “no legal basis” to prevent them from continuing with agricultural uses.
Disputes over the protected trees continued through 2021, including the landowners petitioning for a judicial review before the district filed a civil suit in December of that year.
In March 2022, the district directed the landowners to replace 103 of the 108 protected trees cut down on non-ALR land with 791 trees, or pay $100 per centimetre of trunk diameter at the breast height for each tree cut down. That enforcement was also dismissed by the judge’s decision.
Jackson on April 25 shot down the landowners’ ask for the district to pay higher or special costs as the judge disputed the claim that Central Saanich’s civil action was “reprehensible.” While the judge found the district’s interpretation of its bylaw unreasonable in this case, Jackson said the community defending that interpretation was not reprehensible.
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