Elora
A court officer will not change the amount the Centre Wellington Citizens' Coalition must pay for its failed fight to stop Grand River Raceway.
William Hansford has ruled the coalition must still pay $86,040 to Centre Wellington Township and Wellington County for costs, after losing Superior Court and appeal challenges to stop Elmira Raceway from moving to Elora.
"It's disappointing, but my understanding is that the court assessor chose not to revisit the information and let the original ruling stand," said the coalition's Randall Howard.
The coalition had filed objections to Hansford's original ruling of July 22 setting the amount. It argued the award was too high.
In a written explanation of his latest ruling, Hansford said he had made appropriate reductions after hearing arguments from representatives of the coalition, the township and county in the closed day-long hearing.
Hansford said he weighed which legal bills "were reasonable and which ones were not, and made reductions accordingly."
Combined, the township and the county had requested the coalition pay them $113,999.
Hansford added that in reviewing the objection, he found nothing new had been advanced.
"The court saw fit to award costs and (the coalition) now must accept responsibility for them."
Cavan Acheson, the township's lawyer, said Thursday he agreed with Hansford's assessment.
"Those matters which (the coalition) raised in their objection had been in effect addressed specifically by Mr. Hansford when he made his original ruling. So I thought that it had been dealt with already."
Howard said Hansford's ruling was somewhat expected.
"It's a bit of a broken record after a while.
"In our particular instance it's almost unheard of in Canada to have that level of costs assessed against a citizen's group. And if you ask yourself why, maybe it's just bad luck.
"Maybe it's just that each time in the case there's a range of options open to people and we've always come out getting the most aggressive treatment against us. For whatever reason, that's the way they chose to rule in this particular instance."
The coalition may appeal Hansford's decision to the Superior Court of Ontario.
"There's been, at this point, no discussion of taking further steps relative to an appeal,: said Howard. "The group will obviously have to make the final decision on that."
The township passed a resolution July 30 asking the coalition to pay its $59,800 share of the court costs within six months.
The bitter dispute centred around Elora hosting the horse racing track with an accompanying 200 slot machines.
Coun. Joanne Ross-Zuj said Thursday the township just wants to move on.
"For every one of these appeals you have to remember that its still costing our taxpayers money because our lawyers have to respond to all of these.
"There was discussion among all of us about the implications of collecting fees, but that's the judicial process of this land.
"If there is not any kind of deterrent for anybody going to court what would our courts be like? It costs money, you can't just go to court for free."