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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Article, Staff | June 1, 2023 | Michael Moll

Tree Protection: Trees, Unlike Dogs, are All Bark and No Bite

This paper provides a review of the regulatory tools that municipalities and local governments use to protect urban forests and environmentally sensitive areas through tree protection bylaws and the regulation of development. Regulation depends on enforcement, and this paper discusses some strategies for achieving effective enforcement in relation to trees.

Presented at the LIBOA Annual Conference, June 1, 2023.

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Article, Staff | May 29, 2023 | Michael Moll

Legal Issues in Municipal Tax Sales

Tax sales have been a municipal collection remedy in British Columbia for over a century. More recently, tax sales of property in Penticton, Spallumcheen and Pemberton have attracted media attention and revealed the significant financial and emotional risk to owners, and the significant liability risk to municipalities, that can arise from misunderstanding or being unaware that a property has been sold for municipal tax sales. When conducting a tax sale, a collector’s first reference should always be to the procedures set out in the Local Government Act and the Community Charter. The intention of this paper is to provide supplementary commentary on legal issues that arise from matters not expressly covered in the statute.

Presented at the GFOABC Annual Conference, May 30, 2023.

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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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Article, Staff | April 19, 2023 |

The British Columbia Arbitration Act & Construction Disputes – Questions of Law and Grounds for Appeal

Disputes and conflicts routinely arise between owners, builders, contractors and other parties during the planning, design, construction and post-construction phases of a construction project. Delays, unforeseen work or property damage are common grounds for such disputes, which can often result in one of the parties incurring unanticipated costs for which they may seek recovery from the other parties. To address the risks that such disputes may arise, dispute resolution provisions are routinely incorporated into construction contracts to establish a process whereby the parties to a dispute will be required to participate in mediation, arbitration or other alternative dispute resolution processes.

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Article, Staff | April 12, 2023 | Kai Hsieh

City of Revelstoke v. Gelowitz 2023 BCCA 139: A Cautionary Tale for Local Governments on the Duty to Warn Public Facility Users of Hazards

The British Columbia Court of Appeal has affirmed the lower court decision in which the City of Revelstoke (the “City”) was held liable for injuries sustained by the plaintiff after the plaintiff dove into a lake and into shallow water.

Although the plaintiff made his dive from private lands owned by a third party those lands were accessed by the plaintiff as part of a swim that began from the Williamson Lake Park and Campground, a pay-for-use park owned by the City. The plaintiff had been camping on the City-owned lands with friends and family and had entered the lake without seeing the “no diving” signs that had been posted elsewhere. The decision is notable because the City was held liable for not warning of the danger of diving from lands that were not owned by the City. This liability arose because the City invited members of the public into its lakefront park, had been made aware of the dangers posed to individuals diving into the lake area, and was aware that park users were routinely accessing other lands surrounding the lake where this danger was present.

The City was found to have failed to warn the plaintiff of the danger of diving into the lake by failing to have adequate warning signs placed in the vicinity of the lake warning of the dangers posed by diving into the water.

 

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Article, Staff | April 5, 2023 | Michael Moll

Liability Claims for Ineffective Enforcement – What’s Scary and What’s a Scare Tactic

It can be difficult to distinguish the situations in which liability is a real legal concern from those in which claims of potential liability are overblown and used to scare local governments into prioritizing a particular enforcement action. This paper discusses the legal principles that relate to the duties and discretions of a local government in conducting bylaw enforcement and how the risk of a successful claim being proven in court in relation to ineffective enforcement can depend significantly on where the contravention occurs.

Presented at MIABC Risk Management Conference, April 6, 2023.

 

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