Municipality of the District of Lunenburg as an Intervenor in Judicial Review
What does intervenor mean – a procedure to allow a “non-party” to join ongoing litigation as a matter of right without needing the permission of the original litigants (GPACA).
Why would they intervene – GPACA requested that they intervene to join our efforts to overturn the closure decision of PRES by SSRSB. But they agreed for a number of reasons – closing rural schools deprives communities and discourages families from staying (or coming) AND closed school buildings are inherited by the Municipality who have to cover remediation and disposal costs which can reach up to $1,000,000 – money that could be invested in other priorities for their residents.
How does it help us – we were advised by our lawyer that having an elected body support our appeal would be helpful. This was not an easy decision for the Municipality to take such a stand and they did not enter into it lightly but we as a community and community organization truly appreciate the principled leadership they have shown on this issue. They continue to solicit public comment and are hosting two public meetings on the importance of rural schools (July 19th, 6:30PM, Lahave Fire Hall and July 24th, 6:30 PM, Northfield District Fire Hall).
What are the financial costs for them to intervene – They have a lawyer on retainer who will work on this instead of something else, not a huge cost for them, but still a cost. However, the potential costs of not participating are much larger and would take the form of inheriting a shuttered building and long-term degradation of a community. Court costs for submitting a brief are minimal and they will not be paying our legal fees. They will direct their lawyer to prepare a brief and submit it to an ongoing court process. Their lawyer, J.C. Reddy, is very familiar with this issue and with the SSRSB.
Sometimes court costs are awarded and in those cases, the “losing litigant” (which would not be MODL in any case) has to pay these document-filing costs which are minimal compared to legal fees – which are not awarded. We have no liability to pay SSRSB’s legal fees and MODL has no responsibility to pay ours.
MODL pays $800,000 EVERY MONTH to SSRSB and has no say in how this money is spent. This is their largest expenditure and they are hugely impacted by decisions made at this level, including importantly – school closures.