Court rules Minnow Lake group's KED appeal was 'entirely without merit,' must pay $37K in costs

A Superior Court judge has ruled the Minnow Lake Restoration Group must pay the City of Greater Sudbury $37,000 in court costs.

The group launched the last legal challenge to the Kingsway Entertainment District (KED) before the project was quashed by city council earlier this month.

In dismissing the case, the judge wrote that the appeal was primarily an attempt to delay the project, after other legal challenges were dismissed.

The Minnow Lake group appealed the decision to move ahead with the KED, arguing the procedure approving it was unfair and illegal.

The group alleged that by failing to provide all information requested by two councillors at a February 2021 meeting, a resolution on the KED passed in July 2021 had "numerous errors of law."

The judge ruled that was far from the truth.

"There is nothing in this that supports, in any way, the allegations of improper conduct relied on by the Minnow Lake Restoration Group Inc.," the transcript said.

"There is nothing that suggests the council moved forward in haste, did not consider the issues at hand, arrived at an 'unreasonable conclusion' or proceeded in any way that could be found to be 'in bad faith, as that term is known in law.'”

Earlier this month, Sudbury councillors voted to kill the KED after four years of appeals delayed the project. It was slated to begin construction in September, but soaring inflation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war more than doubled the cost to $215 million.

Even though the project is now dead, the judge ruled the Minnow Lake group should be on the hook for legal costs totalling $37,000.

"There are circumstances where public interest litigators, though unsuccessful, are not required to pay costs. I am not prepared to extend that advantage to Minnow Lake Restoration Group Inc.," the judge wrote.

"The application was entirely without merit. The impact was limited to more delay in a long-standing planning process and the cost to the City of Greater Sudbury in having to respond. If an argument is to be made that a process was flawed and the subject of bad faith, there should be some evidence that justifies the allegation. Costs are awarded to the City of Greater Sudbury in the amount of $37,000." 

Read the full descision here.