Halt casino to protect turtles: Biologist
There are at least two species of turtles living on the site on Crawford Dr. where a new casino is under construction, says a biologist – and construction should stop until there are plans in place to mitigate harm to the turtles.
Ron Brooks, who was a long-time professor of biology and zoology at the University of Guelph, wrote a new report about turtles on the casino site.
He writes that there are snapping turtles and Midland painted turtles living on the site – and there may also be Blandings turtles and Map turtles there, too.
Brooks was retained by the law firm Affleck Greene, which is representing citizen Roy Brady in his lawsuit against the city over the casino’s location.
Affleck Greene asked Brooks whether there are turtles living on the casino site, and if so, whether plans have been made to mitigate harm done to their habitat.
After reading records from the Ontario Reptile and Amphibian Atlas, as well as data from the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre, Brooks writes that there are certainly turtles living there.
He also writes that he inspected four environmental impact assessments or environmental planning documents.
From reading those, Brooks could find no explanation of how the developer plans to mitigate damage to the turtles’ habitat or make up for the increased traffic from the new driveways on the site.
Given that, he writes, “I conclude that construction should not proceed until impacts have been identified and their mitigation has been addressed.”
No comment was available Tuesday night from Great Canadian Gaming Corp., the B.C. based company that is developing the casino and will operate it.
Michael Binetti, the lawyer for Roy Brady, stated in an e-mail to The Examiner that a further report is expected from Brooks.
“He( Brooks) is a world-renowned expert in this area,” Binetti wrote. “The city should heed his advice and prevent further environmental damage and harm to turtles and turtle habitat by stopping the building until proper mitigation measures can be taken.”
Brady didn’t have any comment about the report specifically, when reached on Tuesday evening, but he said he’s still pursuing the case.
Brady said there’s no court date yet, but he expects there will soon bead ate booked in a Toronto courtroom.
Meanwhile, Mayor Daryl Bennett said Tuesday night that casino construction is continuing apace – and nothing’s expected to put it to a halt.
Even though he hadn’t seen the turtle report, he said he still thinks the casino will be built.
“The site plan is not appealable,” he said.
Brady’s court application is focused on a closed-door meeting that took place at City Hall on Nov. 16, 2015, where councillors discussed the idea of allowing a casino to be built on the property on Crawford Dr.
The public wasn’t allowed at this meeting, the court document points out, and yet councillors decided then to direct city staff to start the process of rezoning.
That was an “illegal process,” says the document, because it came from “an illegal meeting.”
The document also states that the public only found out about this six months later, when the property was identified as the site for the future casino as a passing reference in a city staff report.
Later, it was confirmed by an investigator that the city broke Municipal Act rules in its private meeting in November 2015.
The closed-meeting investigation firm Amberley Gavel looked into the meeting after a complaint from a member of the public. Amberley Gavel is contracted by the city to investigate complaints about closed-door meetings.
The firm revealed that councillors had been talking privately about negotiations over land annexation with Cavan Monaghan Township during that meeting.
But then they talked about a potential site for a casino, the report from the investigator states - and they shouldn’t have, because it had nothing to do with land acquisition.
The court document takes issue with this, stating the city “unilaterally” made a decision.
“City council acted in bad faith, in an arbitrary and unreasonable manner that was unfair,” states the document.
Casino construction started on Sept. 6. Great Canadian Gaming Corp. plans to open it sometime in late 2018.