Prince Edward County Council has decided to continue seeking a legal judgment in its dispute with Picton Terminals.
Prince Edward County had entered settlement talks with the owners of Picton Terminals earlier this year, and settlement negotiations took place over the month of May.
“While we appreciate the work of our staff and legal team, as well as representatives from Picton Terminals, in the end council did not believe the proposed agreement sufficiently addressed the serious concerns we have with the operation of Picton Terminals,” said Mayor Steve Ferguson.
The decision to continue with the court case, rather than settle out of court, was made during Tuesday’s council meeting. During the meeting, council members heard from two local residents in separate deputations urging councillors not to settle out of court.
Ken Stewart, who gave the first deputation, went into great detail about the numerous violations of environmental regulation that have occurred on the property.
“An oil spill originating from a barge docked at Picton Terminals contaminated Picton Bay and shut down the water supply for Picton and Bloomfield. Oil booms on Picton Bay, Coast Guard supervision,” said Stewart, referring to an incident in March of 2017. “The cost to the county was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention the inconvenience to residents.”
He also touched upon other environmental issues including improper storage of waste materials and toxic runoff into the bay, along with infrastructure concerns with more cargo moving through the port and its effect on nearby residents.
The second deputation, by Ryan Wallach, focused on the legal complications of the conflict, and urged council not to accept a settlement.
During his deputation he spoke against claims by Picton Terminals that because ports are federally regulated, Prince Edward County has no ability to enforce by-laws on them.
“If Picton Terminals really thought its arguments were strong, and essentially slam dunks in court, it would not have delayed responding,” said Wallach. “I think most lawyers would tell you that the fact that Picton Terminals has not taken the opportunity to put what it believes are strong arguments before the court and instead has delayed and tried to pressure the county to settle based on nothing more than threats, says a lot about their arguments.”
Wallach’s arguments also noted that allowing any sort of rezoning by a legal settlement could violate the planning act and residents’ rights to due process around zoning changes.
The legal battle with Picton Terminals stems from a zoning dispute that began after council unanimously denied a rezoning application to allow the port to expand its operations in 2020.
