Like other jurisdictions across the country, British Columbia is at risk for numerous emergencies and disasters, including flooding, forest fires, severe water shortages, tsunamis, storm surges, landslides, avalanches, power outages, hazardous material spills and disease outbreaks. While emergency planning and response is a shared responsibility across all levels of government, citizens largely depend on and expect local governments to provide effective, coordinated response in local emergency situations…
Articles & Publications
Article, Staff | March 15, 2019 |
Can the SNC Lavalin Controversy Inform Local Governments?
If you are like me, you may have been following with interest the SNC Lavalin story. At the centre of the controversy is a legal issue that is often difficult to discern amongst the partisan rhetoric that usually accompanies political discourse…
Article, Staff | January 29, 2019 |
Wu v. Vancouver (City), 2019 BCCA 23
The release of the Court of Appeal’s decision in Wu v. Vancouver (City) has been highly anticipated by municipal lawyers. If denied, the appeal would have established a duty for municipal officials to make decisions on development permits within a reasonable time. The trial judge found that…
Article, Staff | October 26, 2018 |
Cannabis Producer Challenges Municipal Land-Use Regulation, and Wins
The matter of 0826239 B.C. Ltd. v. Richmond (City), 2018 BCSC 1438 (CanLII) involved a business owner planning to operate an agricultural greenhouse facility within the City of Richmond and seeking building permits from the City to construct the greenhouses for the operation. The dispute is seeded in lands that are part of the Agricultural Land Reserve (“ALR“). The issue before the court was whether the City…
Article, Staff | October 24, 2018 |
BC Supreme Court Reaffirms the Broad Discretionary Nature of the DVP Approval Process
The BC Supreme Court, in 1139652 B.C. Ltd. v. Whistler (Resort Municipality), 2018 BCSC 1806, recently reaffirmed the discretionary nature of the development variance permit (DVP) approval process under the Local Government Act (LGA) and the broad range of factors that may be considered by a local government council in considering an application. While there is …
Article, Staff | March 29, 2018 |
Waiver of Privilege – Client Beware
An area of law that is often considered sacrosanct is the area of legal professional privilege…
Article, Staff | December 14, 2017 |
New Building Act Provisions & Energy Step Code
Recent legislative changes have been made by the Province that impact building regulation…
Article, Staff | June 30, 2017 |
Case Review: Maglio Installations v. Castlegar
The plaintiff, Maglio was one of several bidders to the City’s invitation to tender for the construction of three public pools…
Article, Staff | May 13, 2017 |
Seeing the Forest From the Trees: Opportunities for Harvesting Carbon Assets
British Columbians are well acquainted with their province’s economic reliance on the forest industry as an economic resource. Less commonly known and understood is forest carbon sequestration – the use of the forests for the carbon resource they hold – a resource that can be utilized without harvesting the timber. For this article, we focus on the potential use by community forest operations of the forest carbon assets from which carbon offsets can be generated and sold…
Article, Staff | May 13, 2017 |
Sustainable Service Delivery Through Asset Management and Contract Administration
In 2016, the most recent Canadian Infrastructure Report Card (CIRC) was released regarding the health of Canada’s infrastructure, and the results were troubling. In its assessment of Canada’s roads and bridges, public transit, buildings, sport and recreation facilities, stormwater, wastewater and potable water infrastructure, the report concluded that one-third of municipal infrastructure was ranked in fair, poor or very poor condition…