Local Government: A British Columbia Legal Handbook - Print

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 this resource, you will be able to:

• 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

Buy today so you can understand the BC local government landscape!

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

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