‘The costs are accumulating’: Caledonia’s McKenzie Meadows developer, contractors take financial hit amid construction delays

The developer of a planned subdivision in Caledonia says new home closings are indefinitely" postponed amid an ongoing land dispute at McKenzie Meadows, currently occupied by Haudenosaunee land defenders.

The construction delays have left families displaced.

Our customers were initially scheduled to start moving in now, in November 2020," William Liske, vice-president and chief legal officer for Losani Homes, said in an email to The Spectator.

McKenzie Meadows, also known as the McKenzie, was purchased by Foxgate Developments - a joint venture between Losani Homes and Ballantry Homes - in 2015. More than three quarters of the planned subdivision's up to 229 homes, which are priced in the $300,000 to $600,000 range, were sold pre-construction.

Forty homes - 10 single-detached and 30 townhouses - were scheduled to close this fall, and buyers had been expecting to start moving in. Another 19 homes were set to close in the first two months of the new year.

No homes have closed yet," Liske said. All of the home buyers are waiting to hear when the delay has concluded, and the court orders implemented, for construction to resume."

A group from Six Nations occupied the construction site on July 19 saying the land was unceded Haudenosaunee territory, and renamed it 1492 Land Back Lane. Despite injunctions - first temporary, now permanent - banning land defenders from the site, they have remained on the land.

Rules set out by Tarion Warranty Corporation, a provincial home-building industry regulator, require builders to give notice to buyers when certain events occur." While McKenzie Meadows is occupied, the delay period on closings remains ongoing.

Most buyers are extremely surprised and confused as to why enforcement of the court orders has not taken place yet," Liske said.

According to the developer, the buyers, most of whom are from the Hamilton area, tend to be young families drawn to Caledonia for its affordable prices, small-town feel" and proximity to the city.

Foxgate said some of the buyers are renting or living with family until home sales close. Others have sold their homes in anticipation of the move to McKenzie Meadows.

Their lives have been flipped upside down," Liske said. They are left with uncertainty regarding their future."

Home deposits range from $20,000 to $50,000 - investments that are protected by Tarion.

It is unclear if any buyers have walked away amid the delays.

Foxgate said there are approximately 67 contractors and 480 workers involved in the McKenzie Meadows project waiting for construction to restart.

Our contractors are managing the difficulty of finding temporary work while still honouring their contracts to mobilize quickly as soon as the court orders are implemented," Liske said. They are doing the best they can."

Liske said Foxgate hasn't been able to reallocate construction crews to other developments.

We expected that the court orders would be either complied with or enforced, and prepared to mobilize accordingly," he said.

Prior to the occupation more than $3 million was spent on sewers, water mains and roadway construction.

The financing costs of carrying those expenditures are ongoing and significant," he said, adding there has also been damage to equipment and the land itself.

The costs are accumulating," he said. We refuse to give up on our customers though."

Foxgate says the construction delay is just one of the costs the company has to bear.

The reputational costs ... of having been labelled as stealing land' from Six Nations of the Grand River has caused long-standing irreparable harm to reputations that took generations to earn," the developer said in a statement.

The developer, land defenders and both provincial and municipals governments have called on Ottawa to intervene. The federal ministers responsible for Indigenous issues haven't publicly weighed in on the issue in weeks.

Land Back Lane spokesperson Skyler Williams indicated last week that ministers were starting to get their ducks in a row," referring to what he described as back-channel talks" between the two federal ministries responsible for Indigenous issues, Six Nations elected band council and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council.

Frustrated Caledonia residents have invited Six Nations to join them in protest near the Argyle Street barricade Saturday afternoon to demand that the federal government speed up reconciliation efforts.

Liske said Foxgate has reached out to federal ministers several times," but has received no meaningful" response.

We see this as reprehensibly turning their backs on hundreds of home-displaced Canadians," he said. Far from being a glimmer of hope."

Kate McCullough is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach her via email: kmccullough@thespec.com