Stop letting the Ontario Municipal Board Run Roughshod Over Communities

For Immediate Release
May 9, 2014

Guelph — Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario and candidate in Guelph, called today for a major overhaul of the OMB.

“It is wrong for the OMB to run roughshod over citizens and communities,” said Schreiner while visiting a farm near St. Agatha in Waterloo region. “The OMB should not be used as a tool for developers with deep pockets to destroy prime farmland and shut out local citizens.”

“This is not just a ridiculous situation.” According to Schreiner, “it’s bad public policy.”

In Guelph alone, OMB hearings have cost the City more than $1 million in legal and expert witness fees in the last three years.

OMB hearings are forcing residents to take on debt to defend their communities and their quality of life. In some cases they risk being SLAPPed with frivolous lawsuit designed to silence local concerns.

“Those with deep pockets and expensive lawyers should not be driving planning decisions in Ontario,” said Schreiner. “The OMB is broken and it should be overhauled or scrapped.”

Mike Schreiner and the Green Party are on a mission to bring honesty, integrity, and good public policy to Queen’s Park.