Category Archives: Administrative Law

Adapting and Using the Law in the Recovery from a Natural Disaster

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Law on the Edge panel discussion commented on: “Law at the Limits: A Canterbury Tale: Adapting and Using the Law in the Recovery from a Natural Disaster”

The Canadian Law & Society Association and the Law & Society Association of Australia & New Zealand held their first joint conference, “Law on the Edge,” from July 1 – 4 in Vancouver in Allard Hall, UBC Law’s spectacular home. There were over 100 plenary and other panels and roughly 400 participants, mainly from Canada, Australia and New Zealand. One of the most interesting panel discussions that I attended was the “Law at the Limits: A Canterbury Tale: Adapting and Using the Law in the Recovery from a Natural Disaster” panel on July 2, with presentations by five professors from the School of Law at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Until this panel, I had not released the breadth of legal issues involved in recovering from natural disasters. The type of legal issues dealt with by panel members emphasized the systemic effects of natural disasters and recoveries, rather than the impact on individuals, such as the landlord/tenant, insurance, employment, credit/debt, mortgage, condo, and family issues being fielded by the volunteers with Calgary Legal Guidance, Pro Bono Law Alberta, Legal Aid Alberta, Pro Bono Students Canada and Student Legal Assistance in their Southern Alberta Flood Legal Help information and advice sessions. Nevertheless, the “Canterbury Tales” about price gouging, construction cartels, expropriation of condemned properties, unmediated discretion, volunteers’ liability, and other topics should be of broad interest to southern Albertans.

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Hop(p)s and Water: A Nice Little Water Rights Decision Out of British Columbia

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Decision commented on: Carolyn Hopp v Assistant Regional Manager Water, 2012-WAT-033(a) (EAB).

The Environmental Appeal Board (EAB) of British Columbia is starting to build up a body of jurisprudence on water rights and especially water licensing decisions in the context of fully allocated or fully recorded streams.

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Supreme Court Renders Leave to Appeal Decisions in Several Alberta Cases

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Cases considered: R v Mack, 2012 ABCA 42, leave to appeal granted, April 11, 2013 (SCC); Métis Nation of Alberta Region 1 v Joint Review Panel, 2012 ABCA 352, leave to appeal dismissed April 11, 2013 (SCC); Fitzpatrick v Alberta College of Physical Therapists, 2012 ABCA 207, leave to appeal dismissed April 11, 2013 (SCC)

On April 11, 2013 the Supreme Court of Canada handed down leave to appeal decisions in three cases from Alberta.

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Duty to consult application is premature – what’s the big deal?

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Case and decision commented on: Metis Nation of Alberta Region 1 v Joint Review Panel, 2012 ABCA 352 and decision of the Joint Review Panel

In this decision Justice Slatter denied the application of the Metis Nation and of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) for leave to appeal the decision of the Joint Review Panel (JRP) constituted to deal with Shell’s Jackpine Mine Expansion Project application. In its decision the JRP concluded that it did not have jurisdiction to assess whether or not the Crown had fulfilled its duty to consult with respect to the Jackpine Mine Project. In the alternative, the JRP concluded that any application to assess whether or not the Crown had fulfilled its constitutional obligation was premature. The JRP is established by federal\provincial executive agreement and has the responsibility of discharging obligations under both the federal Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012, SC 2012, c 19 and the responsibilities of the provincial Energy Resources Conservation Board under a number of statues including the Oil Sands Conservation Act, RSA 2000, c O-7 – all with respect to the Jackpine Mine expansion project.

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Bill 2 the Responsible Energy Development Act and the Duty to Consult

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Proposals commented on: Bill 2, the Responsible Energy Development Act, Alberta and the First Nations Consultation Policy, Discussion Paper, (Fall 2012).

There has been a lively debate in the courts, tribunal decisions and the literature over the last few years as to the role of administrative tribunals in discharging or examining the Crown’s duty to consult aboriginal peoples when contemplating making decisions and developing policies which may adversely affect aboriginal or treaty rights. There are two guiding rules. First, a tribunal that has the authority to decide questions of law is presumed to have the jurisdiction to decide questions of constitutional law including the question of whether or not the Crown has satisfied its constitutional duty to consult and accommodate – provided that the constitutional question is rationally connected to a power or jurisdiction that the tribunal is exercising. The legislature may rebut that presumption by removing all or part of that jurisdiction from a tribunal. Second, a tribunal does not have the authority to discharge the Crown’s duty to consult and accommodate unless that authority is expressly delegated to the tribunal. The principal authority for all of this is Rio Tinto Alcan Inc v Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, 2010 SCC 43 which I blogged at here.

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