Province settles land dispute with CP Rail for $ 19 million
Railway gives up timber, stone rights on property across B. C.
The province of British Columbia has agreed to pay Canadian Pacific Railway $ 19 million for the company to surrender its claims to land and interests in timber and stone on nearly 215,000 hectares of private and Crown land.
The root of the complex dispute extends more than a century to 1892, when the province began granting land to a trio of historic rail companies for railway construction, according to a provincial news release. The companies later sold the land to third parties, but when they did so, they reserved timber and stone interests, an unusual move that was not recognized in later transactions.
When CP succeeded the historic railways in 1956, it became the owner of those claimed interests, which were disputed by the province.
The railway sued the government, landowners and tenure holders in May 2013, seeking damages and confirmation of the disputed and historic interests.
As part of the $ 19- million payout, announced Thursday in conjunction with the province’s introduction of its proposed Canadian Pacific Railway ( Stone and Timber) Settlement Act, CP agreed to drop its lawsuit.
“Clarifying ownership and value of reservations on thousands of land titles through the courts would have been timeconsuming and expensive,” read the news release. “The settlement agreement and proposed legislation provide certainty for all parties.”
It the legislation passes, the province and affected landowners will “clearly own” the reserved timber and stone, according to the province.
The announcement comes as CP continues to tangle with the city of Vancouver over an 11- kilometre spur line along the Arbutus corridor that the company had left unused and unmaintained for more than a decade.
The city offered $ 20 million to buy the land and protect it as a greenway, but CP said the corridor is worth as much as $ 400 million. CP had offered the line for less than that amount, but would not say what it wanted.
The city is seeking injunctions against CP to prevent it from reactivating the tracks.