Local Government: A British Columbia Legal Handbook--ONLINE

William Buholzer's classic guide to BC local government laws

This book is essential for: any government employee, government official, or lawyer who deals with local government laws

Current to: May 1, 2020

Lawyers and council members need to be familiar with the legal principles of local government in order to properly navigate the ever-changing regulatory and policy context of municipal law. Prominent lawyer, Bill Buholzer, has written Local Government: A British Columbia Legal Handbook to provide the legal and local government communities with an accessible, topic-by-topic resource that explains how the Local Government Act and Community Charter work with other statutes to govern each aspect of local government law including elections, services, powers, finances, and land use management.

With an online subscription to Local Government: A British Columbia Legal Handbook, your firm will be able to:

• conveniently access detailed guidance at any time and from any location, search for relevant information, and link directly to significant legislation, case law, and websites
• understand the rights and responsibilities of local governments
  
• navigate local government operations and decision-making processes
  
• gain insight into how BC courts and other Canadian "broad municipal powers" jurisdictions view local government laws

Subscribe today so you can understand the BC local government landscape! View a sample from this book!

Highlights of the 2020 Update include:

• effect on local government powers of joint decision-making agreements between provincial Cabinet and Indigenous governing bodies
• local government veto over licensing of retail cannabis sales
• new passenger transportation requirements
• BCCA on "pith and substance" analysis for determining whether a bylaw has been enacted under Community Charter concurrent authority regime
• BCCA approval of local government's prerogative to exclude bids from litigating contractors
• closing of office of auditor general for local government
• tax exemptions for commercial properties subject to leases requiring tenant to pay all or part of property tax
• potential imposition of fees for comments and recommendations on liquor and cannabis licensing applications
• COVID-19 measures: exclusion of public from open meetings, conduct of public hearings by means of electronic facilities, same-day bylaw adoption
• zoning bylaws limiting form of tenure to residential rental
• role of housing needs report when preparing or amending an OCP
• new standard of review of local government decisions, per SCC in Vavilov—reasoning and tests
• contextual test for whether oral hearing required for complaints against local government, per BCSC
• anti-SLAPP legislation

Annual subscription rates are based on firm size. A monthly payment option is available.

Online subscribers can purchase a print copy of Local Government: A British Columbia Legal Handbook for 35% off its regular price.

CLEBC Legal Editor
Joy Tataryn
jtataryn@cle.bc.ca 

Chapters

1. The Statutory Context for British Columbia's Local Governments 

2. Local Government Bodies 

3. Local Government Elections

4. Local Government Services 

5. Local Government Regulatory Powers

6. Local Government Corporate Powers

7. Local Governance

8. Local Government Finance

9. Planning and Land Use Management

10. Attacking Local Government Decisions

Tables
Case Table
Statutes and Related Material Table
Index

Author
William A. Buholzer — Young Anderson, Vancouver

About the author
William Buholzer is associate counsel at the firm of Young Anderson, where his practice focuses on land use and planning law, building regulation, and other local government issues. He is a graduate of the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning, a graduate of the Faculty of Law at UBC, and was called to the BC bar in 1991. He is the author of British Columbia Planning Law and Practice, published by LexisNexis, and of the "Planning and Zoning" title in Halsbury's Laws of Canada, published in 2008. He is an associate member of Continuing Studies at Simon Fraser University and an adjunct professor of the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning, where he teaches planning law. In 2010, Mr. Buholzer was elected to the College of Fellows of the Canadian Institute of Planners in recognition of his contribution to the planning profession.