Articles & Publications

Publication, Staff | September 14, 2023 |

Accessible BC Act: Overview and Implications for Organizations

In June 2021, the British Columbia government enacted the Accessible British Columbia Act, S.B.C. 2023, c. 19. to support people with disabilities in meaningfully participating in their communities. Currently, the Act applies to the provincial government and those organizations prescribed by regulation.

This article provides an overview of the Act, highlights its key provisions, explains its application to public organizations and its relevance to organizations who are not currently subject to the Act.

As published in the NRCA’s Northern Construction Connection September 2023 Newsletter, and VICA’s e-New.

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Publication, Staff | August 9, 2023 |

The Agricultural Land Reserve: Prohibitions and Limits on Land Development and Construction

In British Columbia, the Agricultural Land Reserve (“ALR”) designates 4.6 million hectares of land for priority use in agriculture. Intended to protect valuable agricultural land across the province, this designation restricts the scope of construction and development activities that are permitted on ALR land as set out in the Agricultural Land Commission Act SBC 2002 C. 36 (the “Act”) and the Agricultural Land Reserve Use Regulation B.C. Reg. 36/2022 (the “Regulation”). When acquiring, developing and building on land it is incumbent for a property owner to conduct due diligence investigations into the property’s zoning and any other designations that may prohibit or limit their development plans for the property.

As published in the NRCA’s Northern Construction Connection August 2023 Newsletter, and VICA’s e-New.

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Publication, Staff | July 13, 2023 | Sonia Sahota and Kai Hsieh

Trade Agreements – Rights and Requirements 101

Trade agreements apply to public organizations, such as local governments, Crown corporations, health authorities and school districts, and may impact the process by which they procure goods and services (including construction). It is important for public organizations, and vendors that may supply them with goods and services, to understand the rules, limitations and exceptions that may operate for different types of procurements.

As published in the NRCA’s Northern Construction Connection July 2023 Newsletter, and VICA’s e-New.

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Publication, Staff | June 15, 2023 | Marcela Ouatu and Sonia Sahota

“Bid Shopping” in a Tendering Process

Participation in a tendering process may require contractors to expend significant effort and incur costs to prepare their bids, obtain bid security, hold their pricing for a specified period of time, and be bound by the terms of the construction contract. While contractors assume these risks without any promise of being awarded the construction contract, they do have an expectation that their bids will be taken seriously and that they, and their competitors,  will be treated equally and fairly. This is the legal construct that Canadian courts seek to uphold in an effort to preserve the integrity of the tendering process. This article discusses how the Canadian courts have responded when such expectations are not maintained.

As published in the NRCA’s Northern Construction Connection June 2023 Newsletter, and VICA’s e-New.

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Publication, Staff | May 17, 2023 |

What Builders Should Know About Public Procurement

Government contracts represent a big opportunity for many builders. However, builders who pursue public procurements may be surprised to encounter very different rules and procedures than private procurements. This article seeks to explain some of these differences, and their implications, so that builders can better know what to expect in a public procurement.

As published in the NRCA’s Northern Construction Connection May 2023 Newsletter, and VICA’s e-New.

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Publication, Staff | March 15, 2023 |

Not the Cost of Doing Business: Deterrence and Denunciation Considerations Mean Individuals and Organizations can Face Serious Consequences for Workplace Safety Violations

In 2021, there were 1,081 work-related fatalities in Canada. The construction industry had the highest number of fatalities, 212. According to the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada, workers in the construction industry submitted 28,721 claims for lost time due to injury. Serious injuries and fatalities are devastating for workers and their families. They also place employers at risk of liability.

As published in the NRCA’s Northern Construction Connection March 2023 Newsletter, and VICA’s e-New.

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Publication, Staff | February 8, 2023 | Kai Hsieh

Construction Litigation: How a Negligence Claim can Fail if Parties Allocate Risk by Contract

A summary of Centurion Apartment Properties Limited Partnership v Loco Investments Inc, 2022 BCSC 2273

In settling the terms of a contract, parties often address how liability will be handled in the event of a loss, whether through limitation of liability clauses, indemnity clauses, or otherwise. In some cases, parties may also wish to seek redress outside of the terms of the contract through claims of negligence. As discussed in this article, however, such a claim may not always be successful.

As published in the NRCA’s Northern Construction Connection February 2023 Newsletter, and VICA’s e-New.

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Article, Publication, Staff | January 12, 2023 |

New Energy Efficiency Requirements under the BC Building Code

The BC Energy Step Code is a provincial building standard incorporated within the BC Building Code (BCBC) that provides an incremental approach to achieving more energy efficient buildings that go above the base requirements of the BCBC. The Energy Step Code is designed to slowly introduce and increase mandated efficiency requirements so that local authorities and the construction industry can adapt to the process in a management way.

The standard was first introduced in 2017 as a voluntary, compliance-based roadmap that both local government and industry could choose to use to incentivize or require builders to meet a level of energy efficiency in new building construction. Managing Partner, Sonia Sahota, wrote an article about these standards when they were first introduced. That article can be found here.

However, beginning in early 2023, all new buildings constructed in BC will be required to be 20 percent more energy efficient than those built to the requirements of the 2018 BCBC. This article looks at the updates and changes being made under the BCBC. 

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Publication, Students | December 7, 2022 |

Applications and Implications of the new Housing Supply Act

On November 24, the provincial government introduced into law the Housing Supply Act (the “Act”). Though it is not expected to come into effect until the spring of 2023, we write to provide an overview for readers that may be impacted.

In brief, the Act empowers the Minister of the soon-to-be-established Ministry of Housing to issue orders setting housing targets. The targets may be for the availability or affordability of housing, and they will apply to a specific municipality. The Act also sets out escalating steps that the Province may take against municipalities to enforce the housing targets applicable to such municipalities.

As published in the NRCA’s Northern Construction Connection December 2022 Newsletter, and VICA’s e-New.

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Publication, Staff | November 23, 2022 |

Regulatory Requirements for Municipal Utility Corporations: Recommendations from the British Columbia Utilities Commission

In recent decades local government utility corporations have proliferated in British Columbia and provided a mechanism through which municipalities and regional districts have been able to provide energy utility services to its residents through a legally distinct corporate entity owned and operated by the local government.

With local governments increasingly electing to exercise their statutory authority under section 185 of the Community Charter to incorporate local government corporations as a vehicle through which they can provide energy utility services to its residents, inquiries into whether such local government corporations may be regulated under the Utilities Commission Act (the “Act”) or are exempt from its statutory requirements became a priority for the British Columbia Utilities Commission (the “Commission”).

On November 10, 2022, the Commission released the stage 1 report (the “Report”) of the Inquiry into the Regulation of Municipal Energy Utilities. The Report addresses (1) whether a local government corporation wholly owned and operated by a local government and providing energy utility services exclusively within that local government’s boundaries, meets the municipal exclusion set out in the Act and (2), if not, whether the provision of such energy services should be regulated under the Act.

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