Local Government
Legal Costs Paid
Sunshine Coast Regional District
2006 Annual Report
As a general principle, authorities are familiar with their
mandates and their ability to take actions in their field of
expertise. While this principle would not apply to situations
where the state of the law or the empowering legislation is
unclear, members of the public should not be required to hire
lawyers to inform authorities of what the authority can and
cannot do. When this occurs and an authority clearly recognizes
that it should have known that it could not do what it was
trying to do, we believe it fair for the authority to absorb the
legal costs of the member of the public.
One such situation occurred when the Sunshine Coast Regional
District accepted that it was responsible for the legal costs of
a woman when it attempted to place a restrictive covenant on a
building permit to be issued to her. ...more
Advertising leads to complaint about water charges
City of Richmond
2006 Annual Report
The City of Richmond initiated a new water metering program in
2004 but failed to properly explain how people in the
municipality would be charged for their water use. Confusion
over this matter led to a complaint to us that the municipality
had been misleading in its efforts to publicize the new
program....more
Confusion over sewer connection approval
Peace River Regional District
2006 Annual Report
Mr. L asserted that the Regional District’s Sewer Commission had
acted unfairly by altering its position on his ability to obtain
service, without considering his interests. According to Mr. L,
he and two neighbours had proposed to offer an easement and to
fund a large-capacity line, in return for receiving connections
to the line. Mr. L said that the Commission had accepted this
proposal, and that the work to provide the line had been done on
that basis. After paying for the line, Mr. L was informed that
only one of the neighbours had a right to service, as that
person’s property abutted the existing main line....more
