Canada Expropriation

2.3. Empirical Review
2.3.1. Expropriation under the Canadian Law
The somewhat foreboding term “expropriation” in Canada describes the right of the government (the Crown or one of its agencies) to legally take real property (lands) that is in private hands and apply it for a greater public use or benefit. This concept is called “compulsory purchase” in the United Kingdom, and “taking” or “condemnation” under the power of “eminent domain” in the United States.
All land in Canada started off belonging to the Crown. The government did not need all the land and could not possibly have managed all of it. Large tracts were surveyed and then sold to private parties to live on, building structures on and otherwise turn into productive uses. Sometimes,
But if the government does not acquire the land, but merely regulates its use, or imposes other restrictions – even if very severe and even if the result is drastic loss of value – there is rarely a right to compensation.
When an expropriating authority decides to acquire private land, it must first notify every person who has an interest in the land it intends to take. The Expropriation Act specifies the information that must be included in the notice of intention. The notice of intention must be given either in person or by registered mail, and published at least twice in a local newspaper.
Once the notice of intention has been given, interested persons may file a “notice of objection” to the proposed expropriation. They may question whether the taking is fair, sound and reasonably necessary to achieve the objectives of the expropriating authority. For example, an owner might argue that a right of way through his or her land should be narrower than the expropriating authority demanded. They may not, however, dispute the right of the expropriating authority to resort to expropriation, or object to the project itself: a decision to construct a new highway, school, or hospital is political in nature, and is not for a court to
The expropriation cannot take place if the municipality or state authority disposes of any suitable real properties for the same purpose. The expropriated owner should be compensated by an appropriate reimbursement for the seized properties while any direct or collateral damage must also be included. In accordance with the formally defined objectives, some owners’ rights can be restricted for a certain period of time by an additional servitude or easement enacted with a procedure similar to the expropriation. The expropriation procedure of real property is accomplished in two stages. In order to preclude any possible transactions, firstly all the real properties concerned are denoted in the Land Registry. In the next stage the expropriation provision is published, which is the base that enables the conveyance of titles and the registration of the rightful claimant in the Land Registry. No later than two weeks after the formalization of the expropriation provision the parties involved are invited by the public authority to confirm and sign the compensation or the exchange agreement. If in the two-month period the agreement about the compensation is not achieved, any of the parties involved may forward the case to the competent court that makes the decision in the lawsuit proceeding (