Real Estate

  • February 14, 2025

    Feds launch 2025 pre-budget consultations amid tariff uncertainty

    The federal government has launched pre-budget consultations amid the looming threat of the U.S. potentially imposing tariffs on Canadian imports.

  • February 13, 2025

    CBA urges new funding as Federal Court’s massive budget shortfall threatens drastic service cuts

    The Liberal government’s underfunding of the Federal Court could “drastically” reduce service to litigants, its chief justice warns, spurring the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) to call for urgent “off-cycle” federal funding to address the national trial court’s chronic multi-million-dollar budgetary shortfalls.

  • February 13, 2025

    Federal Court of Appeal rejects bid by Sobeys to block Competition Bureau investigation

    The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal Nova Scotia-based Empire Company Limited and subsidiary Sobeys seeking judicial review of a decision by the Competition Bureau to investigate the grocery giant over its alleged use of property controls to block competitors. 

  • February 13, 2025

    NWT looking for input on new Builders’ Lien Act

    The Northwest Territories is looking for input on regulations needed to bring into force its Builders’ Lien Act — new legislation setting out the legal rights and remedies for those embroiled in construction disputes.

  • February 13, 2025

    Growing refugee claims push the system to near collapse | Sergio R. Karas

    As promised during the election campaign, the new Trump Administration issued an Executive Order suspending the controversial United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), effectively halting the resettlement of tens of thousands of migrants seeking entry to the United States. Unpublished State Department statistics obtained by CBS News show that the move stranded more than 22,000 people who had been approved for departure to the United States by the Biden Administration.

  • February 13, 2025

    Gardiner Roberts LLP welcomes new real estate partner

    Gardiner Roberts LLP has announced that Jenette Boycott is now a member of the Commercial Real Estate Group. Boycott, the firm said, brings decades of experience in commercial real estate financings, acquisitions and dispositions. She also regularly acts for traditional and alternative lenders in conventional and complex financings. She was a partner with Bogart Robertson & Chu LLP (BRC), a real estate boutique that has recently merged with Gardiner Roberts.

  • February 13, 2025

    Europe’s revenge: They may hit back harder | Hodine Williams

    The imposition of tariffs by the United States on European Union goods has long been a crossroads in transatlantic trade relations. Historically, the U.S. has used tariffs to protect domestic industries, often citing national security or unfair trade practices as justification — yawn. The most notable recent example was the Trump administration’s 2018, decision to impose a 25 per cent tariff on steel and a 10 per cent tariff on aluminium imports from the EU under s. 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows tariffs for national security reasons. The EU responded swiftly with retaliatory tariffs on iconic American products like alcohol, motorcycles and jeans. But as tensions grow, the question remains: how will the EU respond to U.S. tariffs, and what tools does it have at its disposal?

  • February 12, 2025

    Ontario Court of Appeal finds order lifting BIA stay to be procedural, denies lender leave to appeal

    The Ontario Court of Appeal has found that a lender did not have an automatic right to appeal an order lifting a stay under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and has permitted a project owner to terminate an agreement with an insolvent project developer.

  • February 12, 2025

    The history of U.S.-Canada trade: A tangled tale | Hodine Williams

    Let’s make something clear. From my last article you will by now appreciate that tariffs placed on Canadian goods doesn’t affect the cost of producing Canadian goods or local prices. Canada doesn’t pay the tariffs. Instead, it is paid by persons importing the goods and generally the end users in the United States. The effect is that it makes Canadian good more expensive to Americans and in theory should lower the demand for Canadian goods.

  • February 10, 2025

    C.J. Wagner says top court ‘exploring’ provision of mediation in cases where leave to appeal denied

    Lawyers say they want to know specifics about the out-of-the-blue disclosure from Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner that he has asked his staff to “explore the possibility” of the top court providing “mediation” for litigants in cases where the apex court denies leave to appeal, and his suggestion that family law cases might lend themselves to a potential mediation initiative.