Municipal law and planning law are complex and, to some extent, “hidden” fields. The practice areas tend to feature less frequently in popularized conceptions of “the law.” Regardless, the fields undoubtedly engage complex issues that shape and reshape communities in Ontario and elsewhere.
On February 8 and 9, 2024, I participated in and attended the Ontario Bar Association’s (“OBA”) Municipal, Planning, and Environmental Ontario Legal Conference. My experiences at the conference confirmed the complex nature of these all-too-important legal practice areas.
The 2024 Ontario Legal Conference: A Brief Overview
As an undergraduate co-op student studying land use planning, I quickly began to appreciate planning’s complexity. The field engages numerous intersecting areas of expertise, from field ecology and heritage conservation to transportation engineering and land economics.
Now, as an articling student at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP (“Cassels”) and the OBA Municipal Law Section’s Student Member at Large, I have started to explore the legal dimensions of these complex fields. The 2024 Ontario Legal Conference represented one such important learning opportunity.
The two-day event featured a series of plenary discussions and area-specific panels on important legal updates in the fields. For municipal and planning lawyers, attendees had the opportunity to discuss comprehensive updates on a variety of evolving areas of the practice, including:
- Updates on the Ontario Land Tribunal, including its new online service for appeal submissions;
- An overview of Ontario’s new strong mayor powers;
- Recent compensation decisions under Ontario’s Expropriations Act;
- The municipal procurement process for technology and construction projects;
- Case law updates for municipal and planning lawyers;
- The role of climate change policy in shaping and necessitating changes to land use planning policy;
- The role of integrity commissioners and municipal codes of conduct;
- Planning law legislative developments;
- Drainage Act approvals and appeal processes; and
- The ethical complexities of acting for municipalities and multi-stakeholder, public-facing organizations.
Reflections and Takeaways: Ever-changing Complexity
(1) Exposure to new municipal law and planning law issues
First, the conference introduced me to several of the finer dimensions of land use planning that have eluded me in my academic and professional journey to date. From the regulation of road salt on municipal roads to the appeals process under Ontario’s Drainage Act, the conference provided me with an important opportunity to continue to broaden my conception of the legal issues that municipalities and landowners confront in Ontario. These issues are diverse, much like the numerous statutes that govern them.
(2) Exposure to the complexities of these issues
Second, I obtained an enhanced understanding of the specific issues that contribute to the fields’ complexity. These issues are just as complex and varied as the fields themselves. The issues vary in scale, from climate change resiliency to whether courts will apply Doré v Barreau du Québec, 2012 SCC 12 to determine if an integrity commissioner acted reasonably in concluding that a councillor breached a code of conduct.
Regardless of their scale, these issues are multifaceted. The question of how to build climate-resilient communities in Ontario has no simple answers. Whether courts should review an integrity commissioner’s finding of a code-of-conduct breach on a reasonableness standard is similarly complex. The question raises a normative issue of whether a reasonableness standard is sufficiently onerous to ensure that Canada’s administrative state protects Canada’s Charter rights and freedoms.
(3) The role of municipal and planning lawyers in confronting these complex issues
Third, municipal and planning lawyers stand at the forefront of these issues. The opportunity to meet and speak with attendees at the conference further confirmed that the contours of the practice areas are constantly shifting, either by way of legislative update, tribunal decision, or court judgment. These shifts are inevitable. They lead to uncertainty but, equally, to exciting opportunities for innovative problem solving, both in public and private practice.
Conclusion: A Final Outlook
As I approach the end of my articles at Cassels, I look forward to continuing to engage with these changes and the issues that they present. My undergraduate experiences marked the beginning of my exposure to these complexities, and my legal experiences have just begun to broaden that understanding. Indeed, the practice of municipal law and planning law may, to some extent, be “hidden,” but in that lies its complexity, importance, and consequence.
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