The firm’s municipal law practice includes a large municipal clientele spread across central and northern Ontario.
General Municipal Advice
Our firm regularly provides advice and opinions to our municipal clients in connection with the Municipal Act and other legislation, procedural and governance matters, privacy legislation, municipal by-law enforcement and issues arising from the general operations of a municipality. This also includes drafting and negotiating corporate and commercial contracts, attending Council and other committee or staff meetings to provide opinions and make presentations on legal issues as required. For further information contact William Koughan, Edward Veldboom, Jennifer Biggar or Michael Sirdevan .
Realty Tax Arrears
Jennifer Biggar handles municipal tax sale files for a number of the firm’s municipal clients.
Land Use Planning and Development
We provide advice and representation on all aspects of land use planning and development. Our lawyers have lectured or written articles on issues arising from the Planning Act, and related legislation.
We represent municipalities before the Ontario Land Tribunal and other Provincial Tribunals. It has been our experience that Board Hearings, like court proceedings, are becoming much more complex and costly. For this reason, we try to take all steps possible to resolve outstanding disputes in order to avoid a full hearing.
The lawyers in our firm have prepared a multitude of Subdivision Agreements and Site Plan Control Agreements for our municipal clients. We employ a “checklist process” which is designed to identify all potential issues with subdivision and development proposals at the outset to minimize misunderstandings and disputes and permit development to proceed in an orderly and cost-effective manner.
Building Regulation
We receive requests for advice on matters relating to the Building Code Act and the Building Code from our municipal clients. Our firm routinely works with Chief Building Officials to enforce the Act and the Code in Superior Court proceedings. For further information contact William Koughan, Edward Veldboom, Jennifer Biggar or Michael Sirdevan
Employment and Personnel
The lawyers in our firm have the requisite expertise to provide general and specific advice and representation relating to employee hiring, discipline and dismissal. For further information contact, William Koughan, Edward Veldboom, Jennifer Biggar or Michael Sirdevan
Development Charges
William Koughan is the firm’s leading expert on matters relating to development charges and our firm provides advice to municipal and private sector clients in connection with development charges imposed or proposed under the Development Charges Act. We have assisted municipalities with drafting the content of development charge by-laws and have appeared before the Ontario Municipal Board in proceedings related to development charges.
Environmental Law
We provide services to our municipal clients with respect to environmental legislation particularly as it relates to municipal servicing and new development proposals. This legislation includes the Environmental Protection Act, the Fisheries Act, the Ontario Water Resources Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. For further information contact William Koughan, Edward Veldboom or Jennifer Biggar.
Litigation
Councils of our municipal clients frequently must decide whether court proceedings are necessary to enforce legislative requirements (such as zoning and building by-laws) or to protect municipal property and services. Also, as sophisticated service providers, municipalities are inevitably sued and must be defended in court. We have extensive experience in handling such matters and, as costs of litigation can be high, we are often able to negotiate mediated solutions that can save taxpayers money. However, clients can be assured if any matters result in a court action, our litigation partner, Michael Sirdevan, can step in and assist with this aspect.