Court Dismisses Allegations that Long-Term Care Residents Subsidize Their Health Care Costs

By: Lorian Hardcastle

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Cases Commented On: Alberta v Elder Advocates of Alberta Society, 2011 SCC 24 (CanLII) and Elder Advocates of Alberta Society v Alberta, 2018 ABQB 37 (CanLII)

Under provincial health insurance laws and the Canada Health Act, RSC 1985, c C-6, governments fund medically necessary hospital and physician care. There is also a patchwork of public programs (with varying eligibility criteria and co-payments) to subsidize services such as dental care, pharmaceuticals, home care, and long-term care. While the Alberta government pays for health services provided in long-term care facilities, residents pay accommodation charges. These charges, which cover such costs as housing, housekeeping, and meals, are borne by residents on the theory that they would incur such expenses if they were living in their homes in the community. The current accommodation charge ranges from $53.80 per day for a shared room to $65.50 per day for a private room.

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The Morality of #metoo

By: Alice Woolley

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The forced resignation of Patrick Brown as leader of the Ontario Conservatives raises concerns of fairness and due process – for him and for the women accusing him. Christie Blatchford has castigated the party and other public officials for abandoning the “presumption of innocence”, and has highlighted the wrong of ruining a man’s reputation based on anonymous allegations. Others agree. Conversely, the Prime Minister reportedly said that women who made allegations of misconduct “must be believed” and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has said “I believe victims when they come forward”. Continue reading →

Towards Normative Coherence in the International Law of the Sea for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction

By: Anna-Maria Hubert and Neil Craik

PDF Version: Towards Normative Coherence in the International Law of the Sea for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction

Document Commented On: International legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, A/RES/72/249, provisionally available as document A/72/L.7

This past November, based on the recommendations of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) established under General Assembly Resolution 69/292, the UN General Assembly agreed in Resolution 72/249 to convene an intergovernmental conference “to consider the recommendations of the preparatory committee on the elements and to elaborate the text of an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, with a view to developing the instrument as soon as possible” (para 1). Continue reading →

Alberta Releases Draft Woodland Caribou Range Plan: Pie in the Sky

By: Shaun Fluker

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Matter Commented On: Alberta Draft Woodland Caribou Range Plan

In late December, Alberta issued its draft Woodland Caribou Range Plan. The Government is seeking public input on the content of this Caribou Range Plan, and is hosting several in-person community sessions over the next couple of months. For more detail on how to submit your comments or attend one of the face-to-face sessions, see here. The Caribou Range Plan has been issued by Alberta in response to the federal Woodland Caribou Recovery Strategy issued in 2012 pursuant to the Species at Risk Act, SC 2002 c 29. The federal Recovery Strategy called upon the provinces to develop range plans by October 2017 to demonstrate how they will protect caribou habitat in their respective jurisdictions. The primary reason for why a federal strategy would rely on provincial action to meet its objectives is because the majority of caribou habitat in Alberta falls on provincial lands, and SARA has very little application on provincial lands. This comment explores the legal framework for the Caribou Range Plan and the content in the draft. Continue reading →

Dissonance in Federal Carbon Pricing Regime(s)

By: David V Wright

PDF Version: Dissonance in Federal Carbon Pricing Regime(s)

Legislation Commented On: Legislative Proposals Relating to the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act

Last week, the Trudeau government released draft legislation for a national price on carbon pollution, the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. While this significant step should be lauded as follow-through on important election and international commitments, it is another step toward embedding a disconcerting dissonance that still exists within the federal approach to assigning a monetary value to carbon emissions. Specifically, there remains a glaring and unexplained discrepancy between the soon-to-be-legislated carbon price and the dollar value associated with the social cost of carbon (SCC) used in federal regulatory analyses. In this post, I briefly recount the path to the release of last week’s legislative proposal, then explain the social cost of carbon concept and how it is used, and then conclude with a short account of the apparent dissonance between the carbon pricing in the draft legislation and the government’s SCC estimates.  Continue reading →