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Law Society of Alberta to Hold a Special Meeting to Debate its Power to Mandate Indigenous Cultural Competency Training

On February 3, 2023

In Aboriginal, Announcements, Legal Education

By: Koren Lightning-Earle, Hadley Friedland, Anna Lund, Sarah N Kriekle, Heather (Hero) Laird

Matter commented on: Notice of a Special Meeting of the Law Society of Alberta dated January 26, 2023

PDF Version: Law Society of Alberta to Hold a Special Meeting to Debate its Power to Mandate Indigenous Cultural Competency Training

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from our colleagues at the University of Alberta and in the legal profession in Alberta. A number of members of the University of Calgary Faculty of Law have signed the open letter referenced later in this post, a copy of which can be found here.

This post provides background information about the Special Meeting of the Law Society of Alberta, which will be held on Monday February 6, 2023. At Monday’s meeting, practicing lawyers in the Province of Alberta will be asked to vote on whether their self-governing organization should be able to mandate training on specific topics to ensure that lawyers in the province are minimally competent.

Annotations of NRCB Review Decisions Under the Agricultural Operations Practices Act

By Michael Wenig

On January 30, 2023

In Land Use

By: Michael Wenig

Matter Commented On: Decisions of the Natural Resources Conservation Board under the Agricultural Operation Practices Act, RSA 2000, c. A-7

PDF Version: Annotations of NRCB Review Decisions Under the Agricultural Operations Practices Act

This post is a heads-up about my recently updated annotations of Natural Resources Conservation Board (NRCB) “review” decisions under the Agricultural Operation Practices Act, RSA 2000, c. A-7 (AOPA).

Part II of AOPA gives the NRCB regulatory authority over Alberta-based “confined feeding operations” (CFOs), which are commonly known as intensive livestock operations. (Part I of the AOPA provides so-called “right-to-farm” protection for “agricultural operations” and a system for resolving nuisance claims by those operations’ neighbours. See e.g. Brenda Heelan Powell, Agricultural Lands – Law and Policy in Alberta (Environmental Law Centre, Nov 2019) at 76.) Before AOPA came into effect in 2002, municipalities were the primary regulators of CFOs through their issuance of development permits. This permitting function is linked to municipalities’ land use planning roles.

BC Climate Accountability Law is Justiciable (But Weak Climate Plan is Reasonable)

By David V Wright

On January 27, 2023

In Environmental

By: David V. Wright

Case Commented On: Sierra Club of British Columbia Foundation v British Columbia (Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy), 2023 BCSC 74

PDF Version: BC Climate Accountability Law is Justiciable (But Weak Climate Plan is Reasonable)

In a judgement released last week, the Supreme Court of British Columbia (BCSC) ruled that requirements to report on progress toward climate change targets under the Climate Change Accountability Act, SBC 2007, c 42 (CCAA) are justiciable. This short post provides context for the decision in Sierra Club of British Columbia Foundation v British Columbia (Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy), 2023 BCSC 74 (Sierra Club), summarizes key points, and reflects on potential implications. Overall, this BCSC judgement is a welcome development in the climate change litigation context where justiciability is typically a live and uncertain issue.

Just Transition Friction Needs Interest-Based Negotiation

By David V Wright

On January 25, 2023

In Energy, Legal Education, Negotiation

By: David V. Wright

Matter Commented On: Proposed federal just transition legislation

PDF Version: Just Transition Friction Needs Interest-Based Negotiation

For three weeks every January, I teach the University of Calgary Faculty of Law intensive block course on negotiations. This is a mandatory course for all second-year law students, and it’s a key part of the Calgary Curriculum. Each year I look for contemporary topics and events to use as examples that bring to life the approaches and concepts that we cover in the course. Like any good negotiations course, a core part of the curriculum is focused on interest-based negotiations, the approach long advocated by dispute resolution and negotiation experts around the world. This feeds one of the course’s key learning points: begin negotiations with an interest-based approach and then shift to more competitive, distributive stances later in the process if necessary. An obvious example for this year is the current friction between the federal government and the Alberta government with respect to a proposed federal just transition initiative. This short post examines what is painfully obvious and disconcerting in the present context: both levels of government contributing to this current tension are flouting even the most basic best practises in negotiations. They are adopting positional bargaining instead of an interest-based, problem-solving approach. While Alberta has been particularly aggressive, showing signs that it is more interested in short-term political gains than constructive resolution, no one is doing it right.