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…
Articles & Publications
Publication, Staff | October 26, 2018 |
Construction Bonds: A Useful Tool in a Local Government’s Strongbox
As published in Roadrunner Fall 2018:
Construction bonds are commonly used for public works infrastructure projects. Broadly speaking, a bond is a three-party agreement between the bonding company (the “Surety”), the service provider, such as a general or subcontractor (the “Principal” or “contractor”) and the service recipient or beneficiary, such as the project owner (the “Obligee” or “owner”). Under the bond, the Surety is required to step in and fulfill the Principal’s obligations to the Obligee in the event that the Principal breaches its obligations…
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 …
Publication, Staff | October 23, 2018 |
A Battle of Priorities – Municipal property taxes and court orders in insolvency proceedings
Revenue from taxes on land and improvements are the life blood of municipal services. As such, it is not surprising that each of Canada’s provinces and territories have enacted legislation to authorize not only the imposition and collection of such “property taxes,” but also to secure their collection. While there are some differences in the statutory language between jurisdictions, the various provincial and territorial statutes dealing with municipal and…
Publication, Staff | June 26, 2018 |
The Climate is Changing, Are We?
As published in Roadrunner Summer 2018:
The provincial and federal governments, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) have officially stated that climate change is having an impact on local governments and their infrastructure due to increased extreme weather events and a rise in sea levels. The legal liability risks of climate change impacts include potential negligence claims, nuisance claims and regulatory liability…
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…