Articles

On January 31, 2019, the Supreme Court of Canada decided, in Orphan Well Association v. Grant Thornton Ltd., that a provincial regulator, in this case the Alberta Energy Regulator (the “AER”), can enforce end-of-life obligations with respect to oil wells, pipelines and other provincially regulated facilities belonging to a bankrupt company or its trustee in bankruptcy, even if the enforcement orders adversely affect the assets in the bankrupt’s estate and its secured creditors.

In a judgment rendered on January 11, 2019 (Ville de Saguenay v. Construction Unibec Inc., 2019 QCCA 38), the Quebec Court of Appeal restated the principle that a municipality acts by a resolution of its council or by adopting a bylaw, and indicated that contractors should be prudent when the scope of work pursuant to a successful bid is changed or when unforeseen circumstances arise on the construction site.

On June 12, 2018 Quebec’s Labour Standards Act was updated by the coming into force of an initial phase of the provisions of Bill 176, entitled An act to amend the act respecting labour standards and other legislative provisions mainly to facilitate family-work balance. The second phase of this update was implemented on January 1, 2019 with the coming into force of some important provisions, particularly regarding the right to refuse to work, annual vacations, leave for family or health reasons, and psychological harassment.

For several years now, in both commercial and personal financings, financial institutions and private lenders have added a clause to their loan agreements providing for an additional hypothec over and above the principal hypothec provided for in the agreement. This is now a well-established practice in Quebec.

The Government of Quebec has recently enacted the Regulation respecting training on the retail sale of cannabis and information to be communicated to a purchaser in the course of a cannabis sale.

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office’s Goods and Services Manual has recently been updated with the addition of several terms related to marijuana and cannabis in many categories.