{"id":432102,"date":"2026-01-25T10:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T10:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/432102\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T10:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T10:22:13","slug":"councillor-says-city-caught-off-guard-by-work-at-former-kanata-golf-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/432102\/","title":{"rendered":"Councillor says city \u2018caught off guard\u2019 by work at former Kanata golf course"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

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Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

A city councillor says she\u2019s frustrated after a recent incident at the former Kanata Golf and Country Club left the city feeling “caught off guard.”<\/p>\n

Coun. Cathy Curry says she received an email from developer Minto Homes Thursday evening, letting her know there\u2019d be work underway on the site the following day.<\/p>\n

Until recently, the golf course was the centre of a long-running legal dispute between the city and ClubLink, over the property owner\u2019s plan for a massive housing development on the site.<\/p>\n

Clublink ultimately prevailed.<\/p>\n

Curry says it was only Friday morning <\/a>when she saw the email from Minto sitting in her inbox.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith only moments to spare, I drove over to the golf course as fast as I could to see what was going on,\u201d she told CBC News on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I arrived just in time to see a fairly major bulldozer \u2014 [a] land-moving machine \u2014 making its way down the fairways.\u201d<\/p>\n

While ClubLink came out on top in the legal battles, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has stated the city will not grant any of the easements \u2014 a legal right that lets one party use another’s land for a particular purpose \u2014 that the housing development might need.<\/p>\n

Stormwater concerns, Curry said, are top of mind for many nearby residents, who believed the section of land would continue to be open space in perpetuity, part of the language of the original contract.<\/p>\n

She said ClubLink told her in follow-up emails that a company had been contracted by Minto to clear snow and create a drivable path, making way for eventual soil testing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Staff also confirmed the work as described is permitted as long as no trees are removed, the easements are left alone and there\u2019s no large-scale earth work, Curry added.<\/p>\n

Still, she said the short notice from the developer was upsetting.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of us at that point would know what was going on,\u201d Curry said. \u201cThat is not the way we work with developers. So it was very disappointing to just get a few hours’ notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither Minto Homes nor ClubLink responded to a request for comment on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Barbara Ramsay, chair of the Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition, calls the whole debacle \u201ca stick in the eye.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are angry because they realize the city continues to oppose their initiative,\u201d Ramsay said. \u201cAnd the proof is in the pudding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ABarbara Ramsay, chair of the Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition, calls the lack of ample notice from the developer \u201ca stick in the eye\u201d to both the councillor and her own organization.
\n (Hillary Johnstone\/CBC News)<\/p>\n

Many people who live nearby are concerned that mercury contamination on the site will become a larger problem if the land is disturbed, Ramsay said.<\/p>\n

She said her organization believes Friday\u2019s incident goes beyond communication issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you think the community here feels sitting with bulldozers now starting to move \u2014\u00a0 we’re told it is only snow \u2014 so they can get their trucks across the property to do testing, to do core testing?\u201d Ramsay said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in fact we don’t know if if they are disturbing the settled mercury. Who is overseeing this?\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Curry will bring forward a motion at council, reminding city staff that 192 conditions for the development, laid out by the Ontario Land Tribunal, must be enforced.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-432102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}