Thursday, April 17th, 2008 ::: Law: Titan Lawsuit

In 1983, the Municipal Act was amended to include provisions that enabled municipalities to prohibit or regulate signs or other advertising devices on buildings, vacant lots… This legislation established the framework for dealing with signs and empowered municipalities to remove illegally erected signs expeditiously, without having to go through the Courts. The 1983 amendment to the Municipal Act coincided with a review of the Planning Act. At that time, it was recognized by the Province that the Planning Act was not the proper vehicle for dealing with signs and the enforcement of sign regulations.

-Section 2.1, “History of Sign Regulations,” from Staff Report “Amendments to Signs By-Law 1994-0337, City Planning Department, February 27, 1995

Somebody should tell that to Deputy Chief Building Official Steve Franklin, who has repeatedly informed North York City Councillors, with solicitors present, that the City does not have the power to remove illegal signs on private property without recourse to the courts. Of course it does, Steve Franklin just doesn’t know the laws that govern the work he does, and neither do the City solicitors who were present when Franklin spoke to Councillors.

During 2007, the City laid charges against about 40 illegal Titan Outdoor billboards. The City Solicitor then suspended the charges against about 25 of those Titan signs because Titan informed the City that it would challenge the legality of the signs by-law in Superior Court. While the City could still proceed with enforcement against Titan’s signs on various grounds, including against the unpermitted structures under the Building Code Act, the City Solicitor has decided to allow Titan to earn revenue every day off its illegal billboards, so long as it maintains its court proceedings against the City.

So is it any surprise that Titan Outdoor would now play delay tactics against the City Solicitor? The more Titan delays, the more money the City Solicitor will have allowed them to make on their illegal billboards.

Last week Titan obtained a two-month delay to the start of its lawsuit against the City of Toronto. The trial is now set for July 22-23. The original May 12-13 trial dates were vacated by Judge Campbell on April 14 pursuant to an application filed with the consent of the City:

Unfortunately, the City Solicitor has never recommended using the provisions of the Municipal Act that allow it to remove illegal signs without recourse to the courts; nor has she explained why Deputy Chief Building Official Steve Franklin has been permitted to repeatedly misinform North York City Councillors; nor has she ever explained to City Council why staff submitted such a report to City Council in 1995 only to fail to act on what staff said the law allowed; nor has the City Solicitor recommended that the City use the removal provisions in the Building Code Act, which is not subject to the same Charter of Rights challenges as the signs by-law.

Trapped by their own ineptitude and complete lack of strategic thinking, the bureaucrats will have lost the trial against Titan even with a judgment in the City’s favour.