Time Limits and Judicial Review
February 13, 2024 By Mark Mikulasik Beware the time limit to apply for judicial review of an administrative decision. The Judicial Review Procedures Act provides that “an application for judicial review shall be made no later than 30 days after the date the decision or matter for which judicial review is being sought was made […]
Appealing With Leave
January 18, 2024 By Mark Mikulasik An order of the Ontario Land Tribunal may be appealed to Divisional Court, on a question of law only, and only with leave of the court. THE ISSUES 2541005 Ontario Ltd. v. Oro-Medonte (Township), et al., looks at two important issues: When is it premature to seek leave? What […]
Adverse Possession and Municipal Lands
September 8, 2023 By Mark Mikulasik THE ISSUE Is adverse possession available to extinguish the title of a municipality in favour of someone who claims adverse possession? The answer, says the Ontario Court of Appeal, is “sometimes”. BACKGROUND First, almost all land in Ontario, and especially in Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario, is in the […]
Municipal Bylaws and Injunctions: a Brief Update
August 4, 2023 By Mark Mikulasik We have written before about the advantages that municipalities have in enforcing bylaws through injunctions. Superior Court judges have relaxed the test to grant an injunction in a number of cases, but they have not gone about it in exactly the same way. THE ISSUE The source for consistency […]
Bad Faith, Illegality And By-Laws
May 2, 2023 By Mark Mikulasik THE ISSUE You might think that a by-law which is passed with procedural illegalities would be routinely quashed in court. The law is not that simple. THE CASE In Larabie Estate v. Moonbeam (Township) the Ontario Court of Appeal upholds a Superior Court judgment dismissing an application to have […]
A Million Dollar Parking Ticket?
January 27, 2023 By Mark Mikulasik THE ISSUE No, not really a million-dollar parking ticket. Just a million dollar fine for civil contempt arising from a dispute about illegal parking. The hurt in your pocketbook would be just as painful. THE CASE In Caledon (Town) v. Darzi Holdings Ltd., the individual appellant’s construction company improperly […]
Pecuniary Interest and Patios
October 19, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik What community of interest allows a municipal councillor to participate in debate and voting on an issue in which they have interest? THE ISSUE We all expect councillors or members of local boards to act in good faith for the benefit of the community, not their own interests. Most […]
The Reason For Reasons
October 14, 2022 By Nick Melchiorre …the exercise of public power must be justified, intelligible and transparent, not in the abstract, but to the individuals subject to it.” So said the Supreme Court of Canada in Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, the 2019 case which restated the approach that courts take to a […]
Building Permit Liability Update
September 14, 2022 By Brian Babcock In September 2021 we posted an article entitled “Building Permit Liability” which focused on hidden liability risks lurking in old building permit files. It was based upon the trial decision in Breen v. The Corporation of the Township of Lake of Bays. That decision toddled off to the Ontario […]
Penalties for Municipal Conflict of Interest
August 12, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik The appropriate penalty for a municipal conflict of interest has been controversial as long as there has been a Municipal Conflict of Interest Act in Ontario. Prior to the 2017 amendments to the Act, if there was found to be a conflict of interest, the presiding judge had no […]