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Aug 21 2024

Residential Tenancy Changes to Notice & Dispute Periods

On August 21, 2024, provisions of 2024 Bill 14, Tenancy Statutes Amendment Act, 2024, were brought into force by B.C. Reg. 251/2024. Both the Residential Tenancy Act and Residential Tenancy Regulation were amended to establish certain time periods related to a landlord ending a tenancy for personal use. Specifically, the changes apply when a landlord enters into an agreement to sell a rental unit in good faith and the purchaser of the unit requests the landlord to give notice to end the tenancy because the purchaser or a close family member of the purchaser intends, in good faith, to occupy the rental unit. In these circumstances, the notice period to end the tenancy must be at least 3 months after the date the tenant receives the notice. A tenant may dispute the notice by making an application for dispute resolution within 21 days after receiving the notice. If a landlord has given notice before August 21, 2024, the notice period and dispute period in effect immediately before that date continue to apply.

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Jul 18 2024

Tenancy Statutes Amendments Now In Force

On July 18, changes made by Bill 14, Tenancy Statutes Amendment Act, 2024, to the Residential Tenancy Act and the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act came into force. Bill 14 was introduced with the intention of protecting renters from bad-faith evictions and unfair rent increases, providing landlords with more flexibility and clearer guidelines for ending a tenancy with justified cause, and expediting the dispute resolution process. Changes now in force include:

  • allowing a person who applies to the director for dispute resolution to abandon part of a claim;
  • increasing the amount of notice a landlord must give a tenant when ending a tenancy for personal occupancy;
  • requiring landlords to use a standardized online form to issue a personal-use eviction.

Quickscribe has published early consolidations of the remaining amendments in Bill 14 to the Residential Tenancy Act and Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act, as they will read when the Bill is fully in force.

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May 14 2024

Name Act Changes

On May 13, the BC government tabled Bill 26, the Name Amendment Act (No. 2), 2024, which proposes to prohibit persons convicted of serious Criminal Code offences from legally changing their names. Amendments will be made to the Name Act to prevent a legal name change by persons who have been convicted of prescribed offences, are declared a dangerous or long-term offender, or are found not criminally responsible for a prescribed offence due to a mental disorder. The Bill will allow the Vital Statistics Agency to request, receive and review the results of criminal record checks for individuals applying to change their names.

The specific offences for the purpose of the name-change prohibition will be identified by regulation and will include Criminal Code offences that are dangerous and cause significant harm to others, such as homicide or aggravated sexual assault and offences that target children.

According to Health Minister Adrian Dix, the bill will prevent convicted criminals and individuals who have committed offences causing serious harm to others from evading accountability and avoiding the negative consequences of their actions by legally changing their names.

The legislation follows the recent introduction of a member's bill, Name Amendment Act, 2024, by MLA Kevin Falcon after learning that Allan Schoenborn, who was found not criminally responsible for killing his three children more than a decade ago, had legally changed his name and attempted to have a publication ban imposed on his new identity.

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Recent Contributions From Our Experts

Maddock v. British Columbia, 2022 BCSC 1605: Section 54(h) empowers the Provincial Health Officer ("PHO") to decline the request of a person affected to reconsider (s. 43), review (s. 44), or reassess (s. 45) an order or a variance order during an emergency. This provision exi...

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Joel Morris, Harper Grey LLP on PUBLIC HEALTH ACT

Section 35 is a "comprehensive code for the modification or cancellation of the interests in land identified in subsection (1)"(para. 40). It ousts the common law.

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Peter Roberts, Lawson Lundell LLP on PROPERTY LAW ACT

The theory of corporate identification attributes the intention of a company’s “directing mind” to the corporation for the purposes of establishing corporate mens rea. The doctrine is engaged where the action taken by the directing mind was: within the field ...

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Debby Cumberford, Deborah M. Cumberford on BUSINESS CORPORATIONS ACT

This amendment removes "an architect, as defined in the Architects Act" in 31(a) but adds "an architect under the Professional Governance Act" in 31(f.1).  This is a consequential amendment after the Architects Act was repealed on February 10, 2023 and architects are now ...

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Scott Marcinkow, Harper Grey LLP on EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS REGULATION 396/95

The implications of this section are canvassed by Jennifer Bednard in "Will or Will Not: Practice Implications of Section 58 of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act Part I: What is a Testamentary Document Anyway?" (2020) 78 Advocate 527.

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D. Michael Bain, K.C., Hamilton Howell Bain & Gould on WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION ACT

In Cottrell v. Cottrell, 2023 BCCA 471, the respondent commenced a family law claim against the appellant. The appellant counterclaimed seeking a share of the increase in value of the respondent’s beneficial interests in two family trusts, which were controlled by the re...

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OnPoint Legal Research, Onpoint Legal Research Law Corporation on FAMILY LAW ACT

Athwal v. Johnson, 2023 BCCA 460 was an appeal of an order from a petition for judicial review arising from a dispute between the appellant landlords and respondent tenants regarding the landlord’s Notice to End Tenancy (the “Notice”) under s. 49(3) of the Re...

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OnPoint Legal Research, Onpoint Legal Research Law Corporation on RESIDENTIAL TENANCY ACT

In Singh v Singh, 2020 BCCA 21, the Court of Appeal restricts the nature of the "other factors" that may be argued in favour of reapoprtionment. Justice Garson reviews the specific factors identified in section 95(2) and, applying the principles of statutory interpretation, co...

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John-Paul Boyd QC, John-Paul E. Boyd Arbitration Chambers on FAMILY LAW ACT

Section 36 of the Property Law Act does not apply to the Crown land owned or controlled by the Provincial government:    Fox v British Columbia (Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development), 2022 BCSC 541

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Peter Roberts, Lawson Lundell LLP on PROPERTY LAW ACT

The purpose of this provision, embodying as it does the common law “indoor management rule”, is clear: persons doing business with a corporation should not have to be concerned about whether the company’s internal business housekeeping is in order. Instead, i...

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Debby Cumberford, Deborah M. Cumberford on BUSINESS CORPORATIONS ACT

Decisions of the court under s. 17 are not limited appeal orders and therefore leave is not required under s. 11 of the Court of Appeal Rules to appeal.

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Melanie Harmer, McMillan LLP on JUDICIAL REVIEW PROCEDURE ACT

In Cran v. British Columbia (Information and Privacy Commissioner), 2024 BCSC 1130 (“Cran”), the Court considered a petition for judicial review of an OIPC mediated investigation decision made under s. 49, ‘Mediation may be authorized’ of the Personal I...

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Karen Zimmer, Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP on PERSONAL INFORMATION PROTECTION ACT

In July 2022 the Ombudsperson’s Office released “Systemic Investigation Update: Report on the Implementation of Recommendations from Committed to Change: Protecting the Rights of Involuntary Patients under the Mental Health Act”, which considers whether ...

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Laura Johnston, Health Justice on MENTAL HEALTH REGULATION 233/99

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Greg GEHLEN, GEHLEN DABBS CASH LLP on BANKRUPTCY AND INSOLVENCY ACT [FEDERAL]

Pinnacle Living (Capstan Village) Lands Inc. v. Fairway Recycle Group Inc., 2024 BCCA 172  (May 2, 2024)

The BC Court of Appeal overturned a Chambers judge’s decision respecting the application of s. 23, ‘Removal of claims of lien by payment of total amount r...

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Christopher Hirst, Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP on BUILDERS LIEN ACT

Crisci v. Vancouver Island Health Authority, 2023 BCSC 1883: Section 51 encompasses not only the initial investigatory stage, but also the implementation stage of the complaint process. 

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Joel Morris, Harper Grey LLP on EVIDENCE ACT

In Tom v. Tang, 2023 BCCA 221, the Court of Appeal clarified that the objective standard of a reasonable will-maker applies to the will-maker's reasons for the provisions made for adult children. Previous decisions should not be interpreted as applying a subjective standard wh...

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Stanley Rule, Sabey Rule LLP on WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION ACT

The policy considerations underlying section 60 of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act, together with the nature of constructive trusts was the subject of some debate in a series of articles published in The Advocate in 2022.

 

A healthy and respectful canvassing of p...

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D. Michael Bain, K.C., Hamilton Howell Bain & Gould on WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION ACT

The class action privacy case, Ari v. Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, 2022 BCSC 1475 involved a claim by individuals (and those who lived with them) whose personal information was improperly accessed without an apparent business purpose, by an ICBC adjuster. The adj...

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Karen Zimmer, Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP on PRIVACY ACT

Provisions in the Act which prohibit specific types of ipso facto clauses, such as this one, which invalidates clauses that grant an accelerated payment or forfeiture of term because of someone’s filing of a Notice of Intention, do not oust the general common law “anti-dep...

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Greg GEHLEN, GEHLEN DABBS CASH LLP on BANKRUPTCY AND INSOLVENCY ACT [FEDERAL]

The case Darwin Construction (BC) Ltd. v. PC Urban Glenaire Holdings Ltd., 2023 BCCA 436 (“Darwin”) involved construction of a multi-phase residential townhouse development project based in North Vancouver, a contract dispute over payment to the general contractor ...

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Christopher Hirst, Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP on BUILDERS LIEN ACT

The Court of Appeal quashed a decision of the Tribunal that denied legal representation on the basis that legal counsel could instead provide assistance anonymously and behind the scenes.

The constitutionality of the Civil Resolution Tribunal's limitation on legal representat...

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Melanie Harmer, McMillan LLP on CIVIL RESOLUTION TRIBUNAL ACT

 

In Cohen 2023 BCSECCOM 317 an application was made to the BC Securities Commission for orders than notice delivered under an advance notice policy requiring notice with respect to the election of directors be included in a circular and that the shareholder vote be rest...

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Teresa Tomchak, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP on SECURITIES ACT

The Mental Health Act has no purpose or principles guiding statutory interpretation and application. In A.T. v. British Columbia (Mental Health Review Board), 2023 BCCA 283 at paras. 68-73 the Court summarized different purposes that can be found through jurisprudenc...

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Laura Johnston, Health Justice on MENTAL HEALTH ACT

This provision is mandatory and there is no discretion to order payment to be made to someone other than the PGT. See 2019 BCCA 171 at paras 7 - 11.

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Dan Orsetti, Public Guardian And Trustee of British Columbia on WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION ACT

In applying this section, the Court may consider the following: "First, what were the testator's intentions with regard to the issue for which rectification is sought? Second, does the Will as written fail to carry out those intentions? Third, is that failure a consequence of ...

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Stanley Rule, Sabey Rule LLP on WILLS, ESTATES AND SUCCESSION ACT

 

The Province's guidance [linked here: Guidance on wage or salary information on job postings - Province of British Columbia (gov.bc.ca)] confirms that employers do not need to include commissions or bonus pay, overtime pay, tips, or benefits on job postings. ...

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Scott Marcinkow, Harper Grey LLP on PAY TRANSPARENCY ACT

 

In Mithaq Canada Inc. 2024 ONCMT 9 the Ontario Capital Markets Tribunal (Tribunal) dismissed the application of Mithaq Capital SPC (Mithaq) to cease trade a private placement that Aimia Inc. (Aimia) completed in October 2023. Mithaq had asserted that the private placem...

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Teresa Tomchak, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP on NATIONAL INSTRUMENT 62-104 TAKE-OVER BIDS AND ISSUER BIDS (B.C. Reg. 21/2008)

This section was drawn from section 2.1 of the Arbitration Act, RSBC 1996, c. 55, and is needlessly confusing. On the one hand it seems to say that people can agree to arbitration anything that "may be the subject of a family law dispute in the future," while on the other is s...

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John-Paul Boyd QC, John-Paul E. Boyd Arbitration Chambers on FAMILY LAW ACT

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