Shore walls and the contempt ruling: what the courts found
Last verified June 14, 2026 · Every claim links to its source · Jump to sources
The short version
After a roughly decade-long dispute over shore wall building permits in Lagoon City, the Ontario Superior Court ruled in December 2024 that the Township of Ramara and the Lagoon City Parks and Waterways Commission had acted in bad faith. The court quashed the bylaw amendment at the centre of the dispute, ordered the permit granted, and ordered roughly $144,000 of the applicants' legal costs covered. When the order was not carried out, the court found the township in contempt on March 18, 2026. Rather than wait for a penalty hearing, the township moved to resolve it: on April 2, 2026, ahead of the court's deadline to purge the contempt, it issued a public statement acknowledging the decision, confirmed it had issued the permits in question, and described internal reforms including an organizational restructuring and bringing legal expertise in-house.
What this is about
Lagoon City is a canal community on Lake Simcoe where many properties are held back from the water by shore walls (retaining walls along the shoreline). Keeping those walls sound is a normal part of owning waterfront there. The dispute at the heart of this brief is not about whether shore walls should be maintained — everyone agrees they should — but about how the township and the Lagoon City Parks and Waterways Commission (LCPWC) handled the building permits residents need in order to do the work. [Township — LCPWC] [Township — Building Permits]
The bylaw at the centre of it
According to local reporting, Lagoon City residents Georgi and Ken Jennings applied for a shore wall building permit in 2015. The application was later denied on the basis of a bylaw amendment that required shore walls to be rebuilt to a particular standard — a concrete cap and fascia. The court would later find that this amendment had been applied to deny a permit that an earlier bylaw (reported as Bylaw 2017.25) would have allowed. [OrilliaMatters — residents file contempt charges] [OrilliaMatters — found in contempt]
What the courts decided
December 2024 — the bad-faith ruling. Justice Susan Healey ruled that the Township of Ramara and the LCPWC had acted in bad faith. The court quashed the bylaw amendment, ordered that the permit be granted under the earlier bylaw, and ordered the township to cover roughly $144,000 in the applicants' legal costs. [OrilliaMatters — found in contempt]
March 18, 2026 — the contempt finding. After the residents brought a contempt motion arguing the order had not been carried out, Justice Phillip Sutherland found the township in contempt of the court's orders. The township had argued it did not have all of the applications and that it had set up a new, compliant permit process; the judge rejected those arguments, describing them as excuses
. The township and the LCPWC were given 60 days from March 18 to purge the contempt, with a hearing on penalty scheduled for early May 2026. [OrilliaMatters — found in contempt] [BarrieToday — found in contempt]
How the township has responded
Council discussed the contempt matter in a closed (in-camera) meeting, which municipalities are permitted to do for litigation and legal advice. [OrilliaMatters — closed-door meeting]
On April 2, 2026, ahead of the court's 60-day deadline, the township issued a public statement — its own record of its position — confirming it had issued the shore wall permits in question and acknowledging the court's decision. In it, the township recognized that over a number of years its handling of the matter had not met the standards residents are entitled to expect, and that its permit approaches had not given residents a predictable or transparent experience. It described steps it says it has taken to do better: an organizational restructuring, establishing in-house legal expertise, and changing its external legal counsel for the matter to WeirFoulds LLP. The township said it is committed to serving residents with professionalism, transparency, and integrity. [Township of Ramara — official statement, Apr 2, 2026] [OrilliaMatters — coverage of the statement]
Step by step
| When | Event |
|---|---|
| 2015 | Georgi and Ken Jennings apply for a shore wall building permit in Lagoon City |
| Later | Permit denied based on a bylaw amendment requiring a concrete cap and fascia |
| Dec 2024 | Justice Susan Healey rules the township and LCPWC acted in bad faith; quashes the amendment; orders the permit granted and ~$144,000 in legal costs covered |
| Early 2026 | Residents bring a contempt motion, arguing the order was not carried out |
| Mar 18, 2026 | Justice Phillip Sutherland finds the township in contempt; rejects its defence as excuses; sets a 60-day window to purge and a penalty hearing for early May |
| Apr 2, 2026 | Ahead of the court's deadline, the township issues a public statement, confirms it has issued the permits in question, and outlines internal reforms (restructuring, in-house legal, new external counsel) |
| May 11, 2026 | Separately, council adopts a township-wide Administrative Monetary Penalty System (AMPS) to streamline how it handles bylaw enforcement generally |
Why it matters for residents
Beyond the two property owners who brought the case, the dispute is about how predictable and transparent the township is when residents apply for permits and rely on the rules in place. The court ordered the township to cover roughly $144,000 of the applicants' legal costs, and a municipality's legal costs are ultimately carried by taxpayers. For Lagoon City owners who still need to maintain shore walls, the permit standard and process are the practical questions going forward.
The wider picture: how shoreline permits work
Most shoreline work in Ramara runs through two approvals in sequence. The conservation-authority permit comes first: the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) regulates work near the shoreline under the Conservation Authorities Act (O. Reg. 41/24), including a natural-heritage review within 120 m of the Lake Simcoe shoreline under the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan. The municipal building permit follows. LSRCA categorizes a permit by complexity at intake, so a shore-wall replacement isn't pinned to a single fee in advance:
Staff set the category at intake; retroactive/enforcement penalties can run up to 3× the fee. Source: LSRCA 2026 fee schedule.
Other communities have tried to simplify or consolidate the process. Innisfil's "Our Shore" Community Planning Permit System rolls shoreline approvals into a single municipal permit (three classes, roughly $381 / $1,030 / $2,544 in 2025), explicitly designed to prevent the "walling effect" — though it took about two years of hearings to approve and a councillor flagged its cost and steps. On Georgian Bay (Tay, Tiny), where no conservation authority regulates the shore, Tiny passed its own interim control by-law to fill the gap. One point relevant to Ramara's dispute: research found no Ontario municipal or conservation-authority by-law that prescribes cosmetic wall-construction details (like a concrete cap and fascia) — whether you can build, hazard setbacks and flood/erosion elevations are codified, but the wall's structural design generally runs through the Ontario Building Code and the engineer, and provincial/CA policy leans against hard vertical walls in favour of natural stabilization. [LSRCA; Township of Innisfil "Our Shore"; Township of Tiny interim control by-law 23-044; Severn Sound Environmental Association.]
Sources
OrilliaMatters — "It's not over: Ramara Township found in contempt of court orders" · BarrieToday — "Ramara found in contempt of court orders" · OrilliaMatters — "Residents file contempt charges against Ramara over permit dispute" · OrilliaMatters — "Ramara council meets behind closed doors about contempt charge" · Township of Ramara — official statement on the Lagoon City shorewall legal matter (Apr 2, 2026) · OrilliaMatters — "Ramara comes clean on shore wall permits, pledges more transparency" · OrilliaMatters — "Ramara OKs new administrative penalty process" (AMPS, May 2026) · Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority — permits & 2026 fee schedule · Township of Innisfil "Our Shore" Community Planning Permit System; Township of Tiny interim control by-law 23-044; Severn Sound Environmental Association · Township of Ramara — Building Permits · Township of Ramara — Lagoon City Parks and Waterways Commission