Case considered: Municipality of Crowsnest Pass v. Director, Southern Region, Environmental Management, Alberta Environment (23 December 2009), Appeal No. 08-016-R (A.E.A.B.).
The Context
Crowsnest Pass is one of a number of communities in the South Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB) (another is Okotoks) that face a difficult challenge in acquiring the rights to use additional sources of water to permit municipal expansion.
Case considered: Budget Waste Inc., Re, 2009 ABQB 752.
PDF version: Restructuring under the CCAA: Should A Debtor Always Be Allowed to Proceed?
LoVecchio J.’s decision in Budget Waste Inc., Re (“Budget Waste“) is a great example of the questions courts need to keep in mind as they are deciding on issues that arise in the context of restructuring proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-36 (“CCAA“).
Case considered: Balancing Pool v. TransAlta Utilities Corporation, 2009 ABQB 631
PDF version: The Summary Judgment Exception to the Stay of Proceedings in Favour of Arbitration
A recent decision by Chief Justice Neil C. Wittmann resolves two outstanding issues with respect to the summary judgment exception to stays of court proceedings that is found in section 7(2)(e) of the Arbitration Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. A-43. The first question was whether the exception was available in the absence of a motion for summary judgment contemporaneous with the stay application. The second was that of the appropriate test for determining if the dispute was a proper one for summary judgment. The Chief Justice’s answers to these two issues nicely balances public policy in favour of enforcing arbitration agreements with public policy in favour of resolving disputes in the most just and expeditious manner possible. His answer to the first question increases the circumstances under which the summary judgment exception can be considered by a court. His answer to the second proposes a tough standard to meet, thus narrowing the basis on which a court should exercise its discretion to refuse a stay.
Case considered: R. v. Hape, 2007 SCC 26
PDF version: My Vote for R. v. Hape as a Significant Legal Case of the Decade
When the R. v. Hape case was released at the Supreme Court of Canada, there was some negative reaction in the legal community, but its real significance did not become apparent until recently. In particular, it has become very significant in the litigation aimed at bringing Omar Khadr to Canada from Guantánamo Bay.
Unlike my colleagues I was not prepared to plump for just one case or event and so here are my thoughts on ten notable legal and regulatory events for the oil and gas sector in Alberta over the first decade of the millennium. They are in no particular order; I tried to group some together thematically but some are just here in the order in which they came to mind.
