The Canadian Institute's 5th National Summit on
Creating and Enforcing Municipal By-Laws
Providing Practical Strategies and Solutions to Municipal Challenges Across Canada

DAY 1 – THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Opening Remarks from the Chair

George H. Rust-D’Eye
Partner, WeirFoulds LLP

Critical Cross-Canada Update: Current Legal Challenges Impacting on Municipal By-Law Drafting and Enforcement

Attend this session to stay on top of the key court decisions from the past year and understand the implications of those decisions on by-law drafting and enforceability.

David Boghosian
Barrister & Solicitor
Boghosian & Associates Professional Corporation

• • - Navigating the legal landscape of sign regulation following Vann Media Inc. v. Town of Oakville
    - Hearing the latest on the legal challenge to Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Games By-law
    - What’s new with challenges to adult entertainment by-laws?
    
    - Is the void for vagueness test still available?
    - Regulating public spaces following City of Victoria v. Adam
    - Exploring the constitutionality of Calgary’s Parks and Pathways By-law for homeless persons
    
  - Challenges to the jurisdiction of the municipality
  - Challenges based on freedom of expression under s.2 of the Charter
  - Challenges under s.7 of the Charter
  
• Critical updates on recent challenges to municipal by-laws
• Analyzing trends in judicial deference and the relationship between deference and jurisdiction
• Update on the regulation of parks from a nuisance perspective

Expanding the Authority of Municipalities to Enter Private Property: A Practical Session for Tackling Marijuana Grow-Ops and Avoiding Liability

Elaine Buckstein
Director of Enforcement, City of Mississauga

Shayne Turner
Director of By-Law Enforcement, City of Kitchener

• - Fire and safety by-laws
  
  - Can you register a grow operation on title once the property has been remediated? What are municipalities doing?
  
• Getting up to speed on the authority of municipalities to enter properties: from west to east
• Analyzing the liability issues of marijuana grow ops for municipalities
• Reviewing strategies used by municipalities to combat marijuana grow ops
• Understanding how municipalities can fill in the gaps in Provincial legislation
• Exploring the powers of municipalities to push marijuana grow ops out of local communities including:
• Addressing the practical issues of marijuana grow ops registered on title

Q & A: Keeping Your Anti-Idling Controls Up and Running through Municipal By-Laws, Education Campaigns and Effective Enforcement Strategies

Gabriella Kalapos
Director of Outreach, Clean Air Partnership

• - Who should be enforcing anti-idling by-laws?
  - What enforcement challenges are municipalities experiencing?
  - What strategies are municipalities using to overcome these challenges?
  
  - Set fines: do they improve enforcement?
  
• Examining key provisions municipalities should consider when adopting or revising anti-idling by-laws
• Reviewing model anti-idling by-law provisions across Canada
• Alternatives to the regulatory approach
• Overcoming enforcement issues
• Designing your municipality’s education campaign
• Elements of an effective enforcement strategy: what is working and what is not working?
• Exploring options available to municipalities for enforcing idling control by-laws

Insulating Your By-Laws from Judicial Scrutiny through Public Consultations: Lessons Learned from Recent Sign By-Law Projects

Kim Mullin
Partner, WeirFoulds LLP

Jennifer Huctwith
Solicitor, Town of Oakville

Dan Mousseau
Project Manager, Toronto Sign By-Law Project

• - How is social media being used?
  
  - Does getting public input make a difference?
  
  - How do you involve the public and when?
  - Should you involve the public before or after draft by-laws are in place?
  - What is a reasonable level of consultation?
  - Is there such thing as too much public consultation?
  
• Exploring communication tools and techniques available to municipalities seeking to regulate signage
• Using the public consultation process to gain acceptance for your by-law
• Best practices for involving the public in the by-law drafting process

Using Municipal Environmental By-Laws to Fill in Gaps in Provincial and Federal Legislation: Lessons Learned from Recent Air Quality By-Laws

Dianne Saxe
Saxe Law Office, Barristers & Solicitors

• - How does it overlap with provincial and federal reporting requirements?
  - How does it compliment programs at the federal and provincial levels?
  - How does it fill in the gaps stemming from the "National Pollutant Release Inventory" ("NPRI"), under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and Ontario’s Toxic Reduction Strategy Program ("TRSP") under the Toxics Reduction Act?
  
  - To what extent can municipalities regulate air quality?
  - Could this legislation face legal challenges? On what grounds?
  - How do you avoid operational conflicts from a permit granting system?
  
• Exploring Toronto’s Environmental Reporting and Disclosure By-Law and the reporting of toxic chemical use in business operations
• Examining the Town of Oakville’s Health Protection Air Quality By-Law and the regulation of fine particulate matter air emissions
• Determining what would be required to develop and introduce similar by-laws in your municipality
• Drafting and enforcement tips

Drafting a Legal and Enforceable Plastic Bag By-Law

Michael Pacholok
Solicitor, City of Toronto Legal Department

• Providing a high level overview of the basis for Toronto’s plastic bag by-law
• Identifying factors to consider when deciding to regulate plastic bags
• Discussing the “Environmental Well-Being” power under the City of Toronto Act and related case law
• Comparing the environmental well-being power in Toronto against other jurisdictions
• Reviewing the by-law as currently drafted
• Discussing any enforcement issues that have arisen and how they are being overcome

DAY 2 – FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

Winning Techniques for Investigating and Prosecuting By-Law Infractions: Enforcement and Prosecution Perspectives

Ola Malik
Senior Prosecutor, City of Calgary

Kelly Yerxa
Deputy City Solicitor, City of Brampton

Jean Gillespie
Manager of Prosecutions, City of Brampton

• - What enforcement challenges are municipalities experiencing?
  - What are they doing to overcome these challenges?
  
  - Update on Municipal Administrative Penalties
  - Alternatives to issuing tickets and making arrests
  
  - How is data being recorded?
  - What evidence is being accepted? Digital cameras?
  - Is there a greater demand for experts?
  - How are municipalities dealing with the public’s refusal to provide identification?
  
  - What constitutes an original photograph?
  
• Reviewing the latest investigative techniques employed by municipalities across Canada
• Strategies and tips for ensuring proper by-law enforcement
• Remedial options available to municipalities for ensuring the effective enforcement of by-laws
• Identifying difficulties faced in prosecuting municipal by-law infractions in court
• Discussing new techniques for collecting evidence
• Resolving evidentiary issues facing municipalities including:
• Best practices for handling digital photographs
• Common drafting errors which make prosecution difficult and how to remedy them

10:30 Networking Refreshment Break

10:45 Best Practices for Regulating the Taxi Market and Enforcing Accessibility Standards: Perspectives from Across Canada

Dan Hara
Hara Associates, Taxi Regulation Program (Ottawa)

Scott McAnsh
Solicitor, City of Edmonton

Randolph Kinghorne
Senior Solicitor, Halifax Regional Municipality

Regulating Taxis

• - What is an appropriate approach to the regulation of the taxi industry?
  - How do you reconcile the demand for taxis with an industry that wants to limit the number of licences?
  - Are municipalities creating a new class of licences for accessible taxis? For hybrid taxis?
  
  - What are municipalities across Canada doing?
  - Should municipalities be regulating the trading of licences? Why or why not?
  - What are the arguments for and against capping licences?
  
  - What challenges are municipalities experiencing and what are they doing to overcome these challenges?
  
• Examining models across the country for taxi regulation
• Tightening and streamlining regulations for city taxi operators
• Exploring options for regulating taxis
• Best practices for enforcing taxi licensing by-laws

Meeting Accessibility Standards

• - How are municipalities defining “accessible taxis"?
  - What are municipalities doing to ensure that taxis are accessible?
  - What are municipalities doing to inspect their taxis?
  - What are municipalities doing to train taxi drivers in the proper transport of wheelchairs?
  
• Developing appropriate criteria regarding the inspection of taxis
• Update on The Accessibility Standards for Customer Service Regulation and how it impacts on taxis
• Complying with accessibility standards: current Canadian practices

12:00 Networking Luncheon

1:15 Using Municipal Powers to Control the Adult Entertainment Industry without Encroaching on Criminal Law and Charter Rights

Daniel R. Bennett
Partner, Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP (Vancouver)

• - What strategies are municipalities using to regulate the industry?
  - What is working and what isn’t?
  
  - Through zoning by-laws
  - Through licensing requirements
  
  - How should “adult entertainment” be defined?
  
• Exploring the latest trends in adult entertainment by-laws
• Reviewing the powers of municipalities to manage the adult entertainment industry
• Drafting by-laws that withstand judicial scrutiny
• Exploring the legal remedies available to municipalities to prevent landlords from renting to the body rub business

2:15 Universities and Housing: Applying Lessons Learned from Oshawa’s Experience to Your By-Law Drafting and Enforcement Strategies

David Potts
City Solicitor, City of Oshawa

• Importance of municipal land use planning strategies: better planning=greater compliance=less enforcement
• “Lodging houses”: Oshawa (City) and Windfields v. Death et al. (S.C.C.)
• Ontario Human Rights Commission and land use planning
• To license or not to license?
• The Municipal Act power to “differentiate”
• What is the role of Administrative Penalty Systems?
• Delegation of legislative and quasi-judicial powers
• Best practices for developing and drafting by-laws

3:00 Networking Refreshment Break

3:15 Maintaining Clean, Safe and Prosperous Municipalities by Controlling the Detrimental Effects of Graffiti Vandalism

Orest Katolyk
Manager of By-Law Enforcement, City of London

Stuart Huxley
Legal Counsel, City of Ottawa

• - How do you control graffiti?
  - How should you define "graffiti"?
  - What steps can you take to eliminate graffiti?
  
  - Lessons learned from the cities of London, Ottawa and Vancouver
  
  - Ontario’s Parental Responsibility Act
  
  - Does this work?: Lessons learned from the City of London
  
  - What are municipalities doing?
  - How are they working with property owners?
  
• Discussing options for managing graffiti in your community
• Surveying successful anti-graffiti initiatives in other municipalities
• Identifying what partnerships are necessary to address graffiti in your community
• Exploring remedial options under Provincial legislation
• Passing by-laws banning the sale of graffiti tools to minors
• Best practices for managing large scale graffiti along the highways and sound walls

4:15 Closing Remarks from the Chair: Conference Concludes