News & Publications Archive

Jennifer Nyland and Laura Duke's article, "Court clarifies threshold requirement to trigger BC environmental assessment" was published in the February-March issue of Canadian Mining Journal. The article examines a recent decision by the B.C. Court of Appeal clarifying the threshold requirement to trigger a BC environmental assessment.

Rita Andreone, QC and Michael Lee prepared a Q&A guide to "Corporate Governance and Directors' Duties in Canada."

The Q&A gives a high level overview of board composition, the comply or explain approach, management rules and authority, directors’ duties and liabilities, transactions with directors and conflicts, company meetings, internal controls, accounts and audit, institutional investors and reform proposals.

This paper discusses contract law issues including decisions of relevance to commercial lawyers and business leaders giving a snapshot of particular principles of interest that arose in case law over the past 12 months. 

Deborah Cushing is quoted in The Vancouver Sun article, "The Americans are coming! The Americans are coming! But will we let them in?" published on November, 11 2016. This article discusses the impact of the American election results on immigration to Canada.

Lisa Chamzuk and Nicole Skuggedal’s article “CRTC Releases CASL Decision Clarifying the Limits of Implied Consent” discusses the first written reasons issued by Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in an Anti-Spam case under Canada’s legislation (CASL). In particular, the CRTC decision provides guidance on the scope of the “conspicuous publication” exemption and on the penalties likely to be levied under CASL.

Peter Tolensky and Ed Wilson from Lawson Lundell’s Real Estate Group contributed to Chambers Canada’s Overview: REAL ESTATE: An Introduction to British Columbia. This overview examines British Columbia’s active real estate market in 2016, with a particular focus on the Metro Vancouver area. 

Laura Bevan is quoted in the Canadian Business Franchise article, "Franchise locations must be known prior to disclosure document", published on October, 17 2016. This article examines how franchisee Raibex Canada in Mississauga, Ont., was entitled to rescind its franchise agreement with All Star Wings and Ribs (ASWR) because the franchise location and the head lease were not established before the disclosure document was provided.

Lawson Lundell Partner Lewis Manning is mentioned in the Daily Oil Bulletin article, “Alberta Court of Appeal Reserves Decision in RedWater Energy Court Case." 

Sheila MacPherson and Sandra MacKenzie were quoted in Financial Post article, "Chambers Canada 2017: Legal practice in the Arctic requires special expertise" which acknowledges the differences of practising law in the North by launching a new category: General Business Law: Northern Canada and Arctic.

On October 3, 2016 Rob Sider was quoted in The Province article, "Stress leaves exploit a medical and legal grey area." This article discusses an increase of stress-related medical leaves in Canada which result in a medical and legal "grey area" one that employers have limited ability to manage.

Jim Middlemiss from the National Post, "Stock prices fuel Canadian acquisitions" quotes Stuart Breen on the condition of the markets and its effect on M&A transactions. 

Karen MacMillan, Khaled Abdel-Barr, and Amaan Gangji’s article, "Wearables in the Mining Sector: Balancing Potential Benefits and Privacy Considerations" was recently published in the Lexpert Special Edition on Leading Canadian Lawyers in Global Mining. This article discusses a few of the potential benefits of implementing "wearables" in the workplace of mining companies, and considers data and privacy issues that need to be managed. 

Senior Mining Partners, Karen MacMillan and Khaled Abdel-Barr have written the Canadian chapter of this year's International Comparative Legal Guide: Mining Law. Read the full chapter about their projections of the industry for 2017.

Congratulations to Lisa A. Peters, who was elected Chair of The British Columbia Law Institute during its AGM on Wednesday, August 31st.

For the full press release please visit: http://www.bcli.org/bcli-holds-agm-elects-new-officers

Lewis Manning and Bernadita Tamura-O'Connor provide a Q&A guide to "Oil and gas regulation in Canada: overview"

The Q&A gives a high level overview of the domestic oil and gas sector, rights to oil and gas, health safety and the environment, sale and trade in oil and gas, tax and enforcement of regulation. It covers transfer of rights; transportation by pipeline; environmental impact assessments; decommissioning; waste regulations and proposals for reform.

This article appeared in the 2016 edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Mining Law; published by Global Legal Group Ltd, London

Our Managing Partner, Clifford Proudfoot has penned an article in Lexpert about the need for independent regional law firms in a world of globalization that is seeing Canadian firms merge across borders to become international. Read Cliff's discussionhere.

Peter Roberts was featured in the Vancouver Sun discussing how new legislation could make stratas disband as a result of lucrative offers by developers which would see an increased value per unit. 

Senior Real Estate lawyer, Ed Wilson was quoted in the Canadian Lawyer Magazine article, "B.C. restricts contract assignments", which discusses how Vancouver's escalating property values led some real estate representatives to flip properties, in the period between the signing of the agreement to purchase and closing by assigning the sale to another seller at a higher price.
For Ed's full comments, please click the above pdf.

The BC Government has passed a bill (Bill 27 – 2016: Human Rights Code Amendment Act, 2016) to add "gender identity and expression" as a prohibited ground of discrimination under the Human Rights Code. The amendment adds a prohibition against discrimination on the basis of "gender identity and expression" in addition to the existing grounds of “sex” and “sexual orientation”.

The provincial government announced earlier today, July 25, 2016, that foreign buyers of residential real estate in the Greater Vancouver Regional District (excluding Tsawwassen First Nation lands) will be subject to an additional property transfer tax (The “Additional PTT”) of 15% of the fair market value of a foreign entity's proportionate share of property. For a more detailed overview of this new tax, please refer to the Ministry of Finance Tax Information Sheet.

In summary, the Additional PTT:

1. Is effective on August 2, 2016, regardless of when the applicable contract of purchase and sale was entered into.

2. Is in addition to the general property transfer tax payable on applicable real estate transfers registered with the Land Title Office.

3. Applies to "residential property" which includes, but is not limited to, single family residences, duplexes, multifamily residences, apartments, condominiums and nursing homes.

4. Applies to "foreign entities", being:

a) foreign nationals who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents; b) foreign corporations that were either not incorporated in Canada or incorporated in Canada but controlled in whole or in part by a foreign national or other foreign corporation (unless the shares of the corporation are listed on a Canadian stock exchange); and c) taxable trusts, being foreign national or foreign corporations or a beneficiary of a trust that is a foreign national or foreign corporation.

5. Applies to any applicable residential property transfer, even if the transaction would normally be exempt from property transfer tax, for example a transaction between related individuals or a transfer resulting from an amalgamation.

6. Does not apply to non-residential property.

7. Requires that foreign entities registering a transfer arrange to have an Additional Property Transfer Tax Return form filed at the time the property transfer is filed with the Land Title Office.

The Additional PTT is being introduced through Bill 28-2016 Miscellaneous Statutes (Housing Priority Initiatives) Amendment Act, 2016 [add link], which passed first reading at the provincial legislature today. This legislation is aimed at creating new measures to help make home ownership in the Lower Mainland more affordable. In addition to amendments to the Property Transfer Tax Act, Bill 28-2016 also includes proposed changes to the Real Estate Services Act to end self-regulation of the real estate industry and to the Vancouver Charter to grant the City of Vancouver the power to implement and administer a tax on vacant houses. 

We are pleased to announce that three lawyers and one alumnus from Lawson Lundell LLP have been recognized by the Continuing Legal Education Society for British Columbia (“CLEBC”) for their outstanding contributions. Partners Edward Wilson, David Allard, James Fraser and former partner Paul Bradley were recognized among CLEBC’s list of the most prolific volunteers from 1996-2016. According to CLEBC, this list “counts each time a volunteer has chaired or co-chaired a course, presented at a course, authored or updated a book chapter or course paper, reviewed a book as a member of an editorial board, or contributed to CLEBC in other specific ways, between 1996 and 2016.” The work that the volunteers have undertaken has included contributions to legal education and analysis as well as refining professional ethics and fostering diverse perspectives in the profession. CLEBC volunteers include lawyers, judges, academics, paralegals, legal support staff and other experts from across BC, Canada and the US. Please join us in congratulating Ed, David, Jim and Paul on this tremendous achievement.  

Partner and our Chief Inclusiveness Officer, Karen MacMillan, has written an article in Business in Vancouver on how to build a successful diversity and inclusiveness program in your organization. 

Paul Negenman was quoted in the CAPLA June 2016 issue article, "Lunch 'N Learn: 'Never Do A License Transfer Unless You Know The LLR' ", which addresses how buyers and sellers of oil and natural gas assets in Western Canada who want to ensure a successful licence transfer application (LTA) should never do a transaction where they do not know the asset specific Licensee Liability Rating (LLR) and its impact on them.

For the full article, please see the above pdf.

Toby Kruger, Keith Bergner and John Olynyk provide the following update: On June 9, 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed to hear an appeal from Yukon Court of Appeal’s Peel watershed decision. Click here to read our earlier blog post on the Court of Appeal’s decision handed down November 4, 2015.

Read more here.

Heather Ferris was acknowledged in The Advocate May 2016 as a current committee member for the Builders Lien Act Reform project.

Ed Wilson was acknowledged in The Advocate May 2016 issue as a current committee member for the Strata Property Law Reform project.

Senior Partner Ed Wilson discusses today's announcement by the Province of British Columbia regarding the new restrictions on Assignments of Contracts of Purchase and Sale and how it could affect you. The article has been featured on The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) website.

The Supreme Court of Canada issued its reasons today in Krayzel Corp. v. Equitable Trust Co., 2016 SCC 18 , adding some clarification to a mortgage lender’s right to protect itself from the increased commercial risk associated with a defaulting mortgagor through the use of interest rates, given s. 8 of the Interest Act.

Lawson Lundell LLP is pleased to welcome Jeff Scobie and Crispin Arthur to its growing Calgary office.

Jeff, a lawyer who is highly regarded by clients involved in oil and gas activities, is now a partner in the firm’s Commercial Law and Oil and Gas Groups. He brings extensive experience advising domestic and international companies in corporate and commercial matters. Jeff previously spent six years in the Middle East and is a former general counsel of Qatar Petroleum. He advises on domestic and international projects and has experience advising in relation to LNG matters.

Crispin, a leading corporate finance and securities lawyer, has now joined the firm’s Business Law, Corporate Finance & Securities Law, Energy Law and Mergers & Acquisitions Groups. His practice includes an emphasis on oil and gas, power, securities and corporate reorganizations.

Rita Andreone, QC and Michael Lee prepared a Q&A guide to corporate governance law in Canada. The Q&A gives a high level overview of board composition, the comply or explain approach, management rules and authority, directors’ duties and liabilities, transactions with directors and conflicts, company meetings, internal controls, accounts and audit, institutional investors and reform proposals.

For full guide please see the above pdf.

Paul Negenman was quoted in the Daily Oil Bulletin article, "LLR Diligence Necessary In A&D Transactions, CAPLA Members Told", which addresses that buyers and sellers of oil and natural gas assets in Western Canada who want to ensure a successful licence transfer application (LTA) should never do a transaction where they do not know the asset specific Licensee Liability Rating (LLR) and its impact on them.

For full article, please see the above pdf.

Ritu Mahil is quoted in the Benefits Canada article, "Human rights ruling on miscarriage puts employers on notice", which discusses how employers are to handle employee miscarriages.

Jag Shergill, Nate Todd-Jones and Tom Boyd prepared an article titled, "B.C. Introduces a New Law to Govern Non-profit Societies", that was featured in the April - May 2016 edition of the Surrey Business News. The article discusses the driving force behind the passing of the new Societies Act (British Columbia), which will come into force on November 28, 2016, replacing the existing British Columbia Society Act.

Late last week, the Government of Canada released a proposed methodology for estimating upstream GHG emissions from proposed oil and gas projects undergoing federal environmental assessment. This comes on the heels of the Government’s announcement in late January of its new guiding principles for project review, one of which included assessment of “direct and upstream greenhouse gas emissions linked to the projects under review” (see our previous blog post here). Interested parties have until April 18 to provide comment to the Oil, Gas and Alternate Energy Division of Environment and Climate Change Canada, following which a final methodology will be developed.

Read more here.

Heather Ferris was quoted in the Law Times article, "Insolvency laws still to be ironed out," in which she discusses that one of the major issues in Canada concerning insolvency is the cost of proceedings.

Deborah Cushing was quoted in the Benefits Canada article, "How to bridge the parental leave divide", which discusses the length of parental leave in the workforce.

Recognized nationally, the YWCA Women of Distinction Awards honours individuals and organizations whose outstanding activities and achievements contribute to the well-being and future of our community.

Congratulations to Rita Andreone as she is nominated for The 2016 33rd Annual YWCA Women of Distinction Awards in the Business & the Professions category.

John Smith was mentioned in the Globe and Mail article, "How Vancouver found a path to a deal with Canadian Pacific Railway," which details the City of Vancouver's deal to purchase from CPR the Arbutus Greenway corridor, ending a highly publicized and long-running dispute.