Articles

Following are this week’s summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. Topics included self-represented litigants costs, punitive damages, standard of care of a medical professional, extension of time to bring or perfect an appeal and appellate jurisdiction.

On February 6, 2019, the OBA Public Sector Lawyers Section held its Mastering Regulatory Inspections and Investigations program at Institute 2019. Speakers included Brian Osler, Shelly Feld, Bernard LeBlanc, Elyse Sunshine, Aviva Harari, Michael Denyszyn, and Bruce Matthews.

An article considering the impact of Dagg v. Cameron Estate on the use of life insurance by family law practitioners as security for a party's support obligations. The article also considers a recent application of these principles in Larmer v. Birnie.

The decision in Redwater Energy Corporation (Re) may, for now, resolve the uncertainty regarding the end‐of‐life obligations owed by an AER licensee debtor in an insolvency proceeding. This article describes the likely consequences of the decision for the federal insolvency regime, energy industry, debt financing, and directors of oil and gas companies.

The SCC’s decision in Orphan Well Association v. Grant Thornton Limited says there are end-of-life remedial obligations associated with a bankrupt’s non-productive wells that have to be addressed. These remedial obligations are a prioritization of the use of the bankrupt’s assets for compliance with its regulatory obligations to clean up under the terms of its licenses.This article provides an overview of the impact of the decision on insolvency professionals and secured creditors.

The potential conflict between federal insolvency law and provincial environmental law that came to a head in Orphan Well Association v Grant Thornton Ltd was settled by the Supreme Court of Canada on January 31, 2019.

In 2018, the Cannabis Act came into force and introduced a federal regulatory regime to control the licensing and production of cannabis. However, the Act is largely silent as to the environmental obligations of licensed cultivators and processors (“licensees”). Licensees currently operate in a complex and overlapping environmental regime with significant potential liability. This article provides an overview of a licensee’s key obligations in regard to cannabis waste management.

Secured creditors should engage with the debtor, environmental and insolvency professionals as quickly as possible to protect their investment in collateral. Secured creditors will also need to consider whether it makes sense to risks of regulatory orders if they commence an insolvency process as there is a risk that there will be no distribution to creditors after satisfying environmental obligations.

In our continuing efforts to introduce you to your OBA Executive, we wish to introduce you to Maryana Viguiliouk. Read on to learn more about Maryana’s practice, her experiences, and her motivations for serving on the OBA Citizenship and Immigration Section Executive.