Court Confirms that Offshore Board Cannot Extend a Licence Term by Issuing a Replacement Licence

By: Nigel Bankes 

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Case commented on: David Suzuki Foundation v Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, 2020 NLSC 94 (CanLII).

This decision involves the terms of the federal and provincial legislation implementing the Atlantic Accord: Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Atlantic Accord Implementation Act, SC 1987, Ch 3 (Federal Act), and Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Atlantic Accord Implementation Newfoundland and Labrador Act, RSNL 1990, c C-2 (Newfoundland Act) (collectively the Accord legislation). I commented on earlier proceedings in this litigation (David Suzuki Foundation v Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board, 2018 NLSC 146 (CanLII)) confirming the public interest standing of the applicant here. That earlier post also provides the factual background:

Corridor Resources Inc. (Corridor) received a nine year exploration licence (EL 1105) from the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board (CNLOPB or Board) on January 15, 2008 under the terms of the Accord legislation. … As is customary, the EL was divided into two periods: Period I, five years and Period II, 4 years. In order to validate the licence for Period 2 Corridor had to commence the drilling of a well within the Period I and diligently drill through to completion. Corridor’s proposal to drill proved controversial and triggered a time-consuming environmental assessment procedure. In response to this Corridor applied for and was granted an extension to Period I but in the end it was not able to drill a well as required by the EL.

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COVID-19, Domestic Violence, and Technology-Facilitated Abuse

By: Jennifer Koshan, Janet Mosher, and Wanda Wiegers

PDF Version: COVID-19, Domestic Violence, and Technology-Facilitated Abuse

On 27 May 2020, UN Women launched the “shadow pandemic” public awareness campaign, drawing attention to the global spike in domestic violence linked to COVID-19. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, describes the idea of a shadow pandemic as follows: “Even before the [COVID-19] pandemic, violence against women was one of the most widespread violations of human rights. Since lockdown restrictions, domestic violence has multiplied, spreading across the world in a shadow pandemic.”

We are in the midst of a multi-year research project on domestic violence and access to justice across Canada, but decided to shift our attention this spring/summer to the legal and policy responses to domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. One aspect of our research examines the responses of courts, including what sorts of matters they consider “urgent” enough to hear during the pandemic, and how urgent cases involving domestic violence are being dealt with on the merits. We found 67 relevant cases reported on Can LII between March 16 and June 1, 2020, with relevance meaning that the cases deal with domestic violence issues that were related to the pandemic in some way. These cases span the areas of family, child protection, criminal, and protection order law. One cross-cutting theme in the case law is surveillance and technology-facilitated abuse, which is the subject of this post. We also provide some comments on access to justice issues raised by our case law sample.

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Some Comments on Bill 24, the COVID-19 Pandemic Response Statutes Amendment Act, 2020

By: Shaun Fluker

 PDF Version: Some Comments on Bill 24, the COVID-19 Pandemic Response Statutes Amendment Act, 2020

Legislation Commented On: Bill 24, the COVID-19 Pandemic Response Statutes Amendment Act, 2020, 2nd Sess, 30th Leg, Alberta, 2020

Lawmaking by the Alberta government in response to COVID-19 has been somewhat disorganized and very non-transparent. As well, Alberta seems to be the only Canadian jurisdiction which seized on the public health emergency as an opportunity to double-down on Henry VIII lawmaking by the Executive. These are troubling observations in a political system where the legitimacy of governance is based upon an open, accountable, and predictable legislative process. The need to act swiftly and flatten the curve of COVID-19 certainly justified some deviation from the lawmaking norm in a representative democracy, but Alberta has relied extra heavily on executive and delegated legislative authority in its COVID-19 lawmaking. Accordingly, it would have been reasonable to expect the Legislature to restore some normalcy to lawmaking when the state of public emergency ended in Alberta on June 15.

On June 18, the Minister of Health introduced Bill 24, the COVID-19 Pandemic Response Statutes Amendment Act, 2020 into the Legislature, and most of the Act came into force on June 26 with royal assent. As the Legislature’s first comprehensive post-emergency response to COVID-19, as opposed to subject-specific legislation or the lawmaking thus far enacted by the Executive and its delegates, it is disappointing to observe how little this statute offers. However, on its first reading the Minister of Health did at least promise a forthcoming comprehensive review of the Public Health Act, RSA 2000, c P-37, and Bill 24 requires this to commence no later than August 1.

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Adding Zora to the 1L Crime Syllabus

By: Lisa Silver

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Case Commented On: R v Zora, 2020 SCC 14 (CanLII)

It is never too soon to start thinking about the fall semester – in fact, I keep a running list of changes to make to my syllabus throughout the year. But this year, it seems that the newest Supreme Court of Canada decision in R v Zora, 2020 SCC 14 (CanLII), is going to be added to my syllabus in more places than one. Zora is a rare decision in which the Court does much with so little. I do not say this flippantly but seriously. On the surface, the issue of whether the offence of failure to comply with a release order under section 145(3) of the Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46, requires objective or subjective mens rea seems trite. In fact, any 1L student might be asked to do such an analysis on a law school exam. Yet, Zora soars as Justice Sheilah Martin expertly analyzes the issue holistically, humanely and firmly anchored in the Charter. In doing so, Justice Martin, on behalf of the entire Court, is weaving together a narrative based on the histories of all those accused who have carried their bail conditions like dead weight, from the moment of arrest and right up to the courtroom doors. In this post, I will share 5 reasons why I am adding Zora to my 1L Crime syllabus.

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Community Generation Projects in Alberta

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: Community Generation Projects in Alberta

Regulation and Decisions Commented On: Small Scale Generation Regulation, Alta Reg 194/2018 and five decisions of the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC): (1) AUC Decision 24857-D01-2020, Three Nations Energy GP Inc., Fort Chipewyan Solar Generation Facility (Phase 2),  January 15, 2020; (2) AUC Decision 25236-D01-2020, Peavine Metis Settlement, 4.97-Megawatt Community Solar Power Plant, May 4, 2020; (3) AUC Decision 25459-D01-2020, Innisfail Solar Corporation, Innisfail Solar Project Time Extension and Community Generation Designation, May 21, 2020; (4) AUC Decision 24845-D04-2020, 2113260 Alberta Ltd., Community Generation Designation for Oyen Community Solar Project, June 17, 2020; and (5) AUC Decision 25471-D01-2020, 2181731 Alberta Ltd., Vulcan County Community Solar Project, June 25, 2020.

While the Kenney government declined to commit to new rounds of procurements to meet the target of 30% renewables by 2030 established by the Renewable Electricity Act, SA 2016, c R-16.5 (surprisingly, still in force), it has continued with a renewables incentive program provided for under the Small Scale Generation Regulation, Alta Reg 194/2018 (SSGR), including the concept of community generation projects designed to foster community sponsored renewables projects. This post examines the terms of that regulation as well as practice to date under the regulation.

The SSGR applies to three categories of small scale generation projects: (1) small scale projects (generally), (2) small scale community generation projects, and (3) small scale community generation projects that are located within an isolated community. The second and third categories are sub-sets of the first. None of these projects require any degree of self-supply in order to qualify as eligible projects.

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