Law360 Canada (June 7, 2023, 5:50 AM EDT) -- Application by Canadian National Railway Company (CNR) for leave to appeal the dismissal of CNR’s statutory appeal under the Forest and Range Practices Act. CNR brought the statutory appeal concurrently with a judicial review seeking to set aside orders of the Forest Appeals Commission requiring CNR to pay the Province of British Columbia for costs and damages arising from a wildfire. CNR did not dispute its liability to compensate the Province for costs and damages caused by its activities but did dispute some of the amounts ordered to be paid. The dispute arose from a wildfire that occurred in 2015 because of rail-cutting activities by CNR. Provincial authorities carried out an ignition operation to burn forest fuels on the fire’s southwest flank to prevent spread in that direction. It expanded the burn area by hundreds of hectares. CNR accepted that it contravened a provision of the Wildfire Act (Act) or Wildfire Regulation (Regulation), so the only issue was the amount of compensation due as a result of the contravention. CNR took the position that a causation analysis was necessary to determine the loss resulting from its contravention as opposed to other intervening factors, in this case the ignition operation. CNR submitted that it met the usual test for the grant of leave to appeal....