A question of process

While we await the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal regarding the case brought by the Friends of Lansdowne, it is interesting to consider similar issues which do not involve redevelopment of Lansdowne Park.
In the Globe and Mail of Friday December 30, there was an interesting article entitled "Does it matter if our laws are passed illegally?" by Peter H Russell, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto. Professor Russell deals with the fact that Royal Assent was given on Dec. 15 to Bill C-18, the "Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act. This is the legislation which ends the Wheat Board's monopoly for sales of wheat and barley from Western Canada.
Professor Russell notes that on Dec. 7 the Federal Court had ruled that the way Bill C-18 was introduced into Parliament violated the Canadian Wheat Board Act. My understanding is that the Wheat Board Act calls for a referendum among grain producers prior to a change in the monopoly provisions.
This seems to be very similar to situation which applied to City procurement procedures in the case of Lansdowne. The Friends of Lansdowne argued before Ontario Superior Court that the City had violated its own procurement regulations in the way it proceeded with the Lansdowne redevelopment scheme. The Court seemed to take the position that because City Council has the authority to amend its procurement procedures, it has full authority to do whatever it wants. The contrary view, held by the Friends of Lansdowne, was that Council should amend its regulations if it wishes to engage in an as-yet-disallowed procurement action.
So there is a similarity to the Wheat Board matter. The federal government could have first amended the Wheat Board Act to remove the requirement for a referendum, and then eliminated the monopoly feature in the Act. Similarly the City of Ottawa could have modified its procurement procedures, either its procurement by-law or its Ottawa Option procedure for unsolicited proposals, to provide a legitimate basis for its actions in striking its deal with OSEG.
Both the City of Ottawa and, I expect, the Government of Canada, will be needlessly spending resources defending their mistaken ways of operating. It's great news for members of the bar, but not so great for taxpayers.