Winnipeg developer appeals to Supreme Court to hold city accountable for delays in Parker lands project

A developer who had previously sued the City of Winnipeg over claims that its employees slowed the progress of a residential development in Fort Garry has applied for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. 

In July 2023, a Court of King's Bench judge decided that two city planners intentionally stalled development of the former Parker lands, a 19-hectare parcel that Andrew Marquess of Gem Equities had planned to turn into a 1,900-unit development called Fulton Grove. 

The city was ordered to pay Marquess $5 million. 

The city filed an appeal. In April, a Manitoba Court of Appeal judge decided that evidence presented at trial fell short of proving the city planners were guilty of misfeasance in public office, and reversed the original decision. 

The decision also stated that there was "nothing nefarious" about city planners meeting with River Heights-Fort Garry Coun. John Orlikow to give and receive feedback on the project. 

Now the developer hopes to reverse that decision. 

On Monday, the developer's lawyers filed a 242-page application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing the city planners were "acting deliberately and unlawfully in an effort to slow down or thwart the Plaintiffs' development with disregard for the harm their actions were causing the Plaintiffs."

The document reaffirms claims Marquess made in his 2018 statement of claim and hearings in 2021. 

The city had argued that there was no evidence that its employees were unlawfully and deliberately trying to slow down the development of the land, which Marquess had acquired in a 2009 swap with the city for land he owned in Fort Rouge.

CBC News has reached out to the City of Winnipeg, but did not hear back prior to publication.