Insights

Let’s be honest, cycling in Saskatoon is hard. Forget for a moment the fact that we live in near arctic conditions for half the year, the urban sprawl of Saskatoon is nearly three times the size of Manhattan, and let’s not even mention the substandard condition of our roads. The biggest barrier to cycling in Saskatoon remains the underdeveloped...

1. What is the difference between a Will, Power of Attorney and a Health Care Directive? A Will is intended to govern after death. It deals with the distribution of assets to the people named in your Will (called “beneficiaries”). On the contrary, a Power of Attorney governs during your lifetime and ceases to have effect upon death. The Power of...

On July 14, 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed that a federally regulated employer requires just cause in order to dismiss a non-unionized employee who has completed twelve consecutive months of service (to read the full decision, see the web link below). The confusion over the appropriate dismissal standard had been building for years, as...

In the last installment of Condo Talk, I discussed the benefits of having a policy in place for the collection of arrears. This article will add another tool to the Boards’ arsenal in trying to collect fees from unit owners who are behind in their payments. When an owner is in arrears with respect to condominium fees, The Condominium Property Act...

Do you know what historically took place on the commercial land you own or the land surrounding it? If not, there is a chance it may be contaminated. While this may not necessarily impact you while you own the land, it can have huge financial repercussions if you ever go to sell or refinance, even if the contamination migrated to your property from...

As part of the federal government’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism initiatives, the federal government is implementing several changes to the Canadian Business Corporations Act (“CBCA”) through Bill C-86. These changes come into force on June 13, 2019. By this date, all non-distributing, federally incorporated corporations will need to...

The Province of Saskatchewan’s first Public-Private Partnership (P3) project has been completed in Swift Current. The project known as The Meadows is a 225 bed long-term care facility. In a release dated May 2, 2016, the Province confirmed the project was completed on time and on budget resulting in a total savings of $16 million dollars over a...

International students face many obstacles in becoming permanent residents. There are two options for students to obtain permanent residency, with the Express Entry program being one of the options. Candidates that enter Express Entry are assigned Comprehensive Ranking System points based on a number of criteria and only the candidates with top...

Effective May 24, 2016, issuers who engage in the private placement of exempt market securities in Saskatchewan and some other provinces will be required to file their Reports on Exempt Distribution via the Canadian Securities Administrator’s System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (“SEDAR”). An issuer is able to rely on a number of...

The subdivision provisions of The Planning and Development Act, 2007 (Saskatchewan) (the “ Act”) might, in some circumstances, affect the validity of a lease. Consider the following example. Company A owns land that includes a number of standalone buildings. The land is described on one Certificate of Title. Company B offers to lease one of those...

Business Transition Planning is the process of preparing to hand over control of your business to others in a way that is the least disruptive to the business’ operations and value. It is important to have a transition plan because less than one third of family businesses survive the transition into the second generation. Of those businesses only...

Viewers have had a time to ponder the Netflix documentary “Making a Murderer” that generated so much interest in the Stephen Avery case. In the interest of full disclosure: I binge-watched the series in two evenings (I assume this is how most of Netflix content is consumed). I was left having no idea if Avery was the killer or not. I tend to watch...